All that matters
by zrocker119
Summary: He made a promise to his father. Learning that he has one last living family member left he sets out to find them. Cause in the end, family is what matters. Rated M because I'm paranoid.(on hold)
1. Chapter 1

Zrocker119: this is just something that has been on my mind for some time now. Here's what's going on. Ichigo is born in the OP verse. More will be reviled as the story progresses.

"normal speech"

'thoughts'

~hollow~

START

-some island on the Grand Line-

Bars were always full. People of all types are drawn to them. Whether it be to relax or just have a good time. Fight would break out every once in a while but those were a common sight. They were a great way of getting away from the troubles of life.

The man that sat alone at the bar wasn't there for any of these reasons. He had on a black shihakusho with white shoulder plates crossing his chest in an X shape, the left having three sections adorned with red scales. Tied around his waist was a white cloak with black markings. His head was covered by a black hood, leaving only his lower face uncovered.

Strapped to his right hip and back were two blades. The one on his back was as long as he is tall and shaped like a khyber knife, with the grip at the base of the blade and a handle extending back from this about roughly the width of his forearm. There is a thin hollowed out portion running along the back edge of the blade from the base to the middle. The second blade was smaller, about the size of his arm, and is similar to the first sword, but resembles a trench knife. It has an enclosed handle, with part of it acting as a guard.

The man calmly ate his food as he listened to the conversations going on around them.

"So I told him..."

Nope.

"The marines are..."

Nadda.

"I heard the Strawhats were sighted not to far from here."

Bingo.

Getting up the man made his way to the table where the guy was talking. "Excuse me sir, but did you say the Stawhats?"

The guy faced him. "That's right young man."

"How long ago was this and where?"

"Two days ago, they were seen heading towards Alabasta." The guy caught a bag that was thrown at him. Looking inside he saw money.

"Thanks for the info." With that the hooded figure left.

"What was that all about?"

"Don't know."

-The docks-

The figure moved quickly towards the end of the dock where a small boat waited. He looked at the log pose on his wrist, double checking to see if it was set. Seeing it was he jumped on the boat. "We know where they're going to be. Lets go Chad."

The one he spoke to was a dark skinned man with pronounced cheek bones and wavy brown hair with the bangs covering his eyes and a goatee. He is extremely tall(about 6ft 5) and muscular. He wears a sleeveless grey-green shirt, white pants and shoes. On his left shoulder was a tatoo of a heart with a snake and angel wings around it. In the center read Amore a Morte.

Nodding Yasutora Sado, other wise known as Chad, pulled up the anchor and released the sails. "Ichigo, are okay."

A strong breeze came a blew down the mans hood revealing a handsome young man with brown eyes and bright spiky orange hair. "I've been searching for two years Chad and now we're only one island away." His luck had finally paid off.

'I'll finally keep my promise dad.' He looked out over the horizon.

"Wait for me."

-End-

Zrocker119: shorter than what I normally write but this is just something I thought of. Let me know what you think and asked questions.


	2. Revelation

Zrocker119: This story hasn't even been out for a day yet is becoming more popular than my other one... People must really not like OC's. Now characters might be a little occ so be prepared. Forgot to do the disclaimer last time so here it is. I own nothing that has to do with Bleach or One Piece. They belong to their respective owners.

"normal speech"

'thoughts'

~hollow~

"THIS IS BULLSHIT!" Ichigo screamed while Chad was quiet as usual, calmly trying to steer the ship out of the storm. This was one of the things he hated about this damned ocean. One minute it's sun shine and clear sky's. The next a storm straight out of hell is trying to capsize their boat. Over the course of 3 days it has rain, snowed, and Ichigo swore at one point it was raining fireballs.

10 horrifying minutes later they were finally clear of the storm. Laying flat on his back Ichigo looked at Chad. "Good work Chad." The giant sent him a thumbs up. Giving a weak laugh Ichigo checked the log pose seeing they were a little off course. "30 degrees starboard, we drifted a bit." Grunting a response, Chad spun the wheel and pointed them in the right direction.

The next few minutes were in complete silence. It was a comfortable silence, with Chad being a man of few words and Ichigo having a lot on his mind.

"You're nervous.?" Chad asked/stated

"Why wouldn't I be?" Ichigo said exasperated. "I mean we've been searching for 2 years, and now we're so close I can practically see them!"

"I can see them."

"I find out that I have a... Wait what?" Chad's words just registering. Throwing Ichigo a spyglass Chad pointed. Looking through it, Ichigo saw what he was talking about. Off the coast of Alabasta was a ship, its flag had a Jolly Roger wearing a mugiwara. Heading towards it were 20 marine ships. 10 were quickly destroyed by a giant fist of fire, but the others were left untouched. "Lets go Chad." Ichigo disappeared with a burst of speed, Chad with a green light.

-ON THE GOING MERRY-

Things weren't looking so great. Ace destroyed half the ships during his departure, but left the rest.

"WE'RE GONNA DIE!" Chopper and Usopp were freaking out as usual. Before Nami could yell at them something strange... Okay something strange for normal people happened.

"GETSUGA TENSHO!"

"El DIRECTO!"

Two blasts of blue/white energy shot past the Going Merry and towards the marines. Once they hit the ships were enveloped in a dome of light. The Strawhats had to look away from the brightness. The light faded and their jaw fell at the aftermath. Everyone of the ships were destroyed beyond repair, only a few chunks remain.

"Think we put a little to much into that?" The crew spun around to find two men standing there. The tall one shrugs. "Yeah I don't think so either." Said the hooded one as he put a large sword on his back. They stared at the two and they stared back.

"Hi." The hooded guy gave them a small waved. He was forced to back up when Luffy was instantly in front of him with stars in his eyes.

"Sugoi! How'd you do that, wanna join my crew!?"

"...Hu?" He was caught off guard by the sudden invasion of his personal space.

"Baka!" Nami sent Luffy to the ground with a punch his head. "Don't just go asking random guys that showed up out of nowhere!"

Zoro eyed the two. Sizing them up he could see that they were fighters and if their attacks were anything to go by, both of them were strong.

Sanji was doing the same thing. He didn't like how the hooded one suddenly froze up once Nami was in front of him. 'I need to keep an eye on him.' Sanji thought lighting a cigarette.

Chopper was "hiding" behind a barrel peeking at the two. The tall one noticed and gave him a small wave. Chopper ducked back behind the barrel.

Usopp was...well...well he was being Usopp.

Vivi had the strangest reaction to them. She couldn't help but feel she had met one of them from somewhere. Suddenly it came to her. She recognized that voice. "Ichigo?"

The shorter one looked at her. "Vivi!?" He was almost sent to the ground when she tackled him into a hug.

"Ichigo, I haven't seen you in years." He hesitates and hugs her back.

"It's nice to see you too."

"You know this guy Vivi?" Nami asks.

Letting go of the now named Ichigo, Vivi nods. "We're old child hood friends." She looks at him and smiles. "How's uncle Isshin? Last time I saw the two of you was when he was stationed here."

Ichigo pulled down his hood revealing his saddened face. "He died a few years ago."

"I-I'm so sorry, I-I didn't know." She felt terrible right now.

"Don't worry about it, he's with my mom now." Ichigo said putting a hand on her shoulder.

"If you're friends with Vivi then you must be a good guy." Luffy laughed getting back to his feet. "Now you have to join our crew." There goes Luffy using his logic again.

"What's a princess doing with a group of pirates?" Ichigo asked crossing his arms. "If you kidnapped her, then we've got a problem."

"No they're helping me stop the war." Vivi said clearing up his confusion. "The better question is why are you here, and attacking the marines, last I checked you and uncle Isshin were one of them." Vivi's declaration put them all on edge.

"They can go to hell." Ichigo said coldly. Chad tapped his shoulder. Having his attention he nodded his head at Nami. "Right, your Nami?" He asked.

"Yes. What do you want with me?" She asked, she and everyone getting ready for a fight. Well everyone except for Luffy that is. He was convinced that they were good guys.

Ichigo nervously ran a hand through his hair. He opened his mouth to speak but closed it. This went one for some time but then he sighed. "There's no easy way to say this without freaking you out, so here it goes..." He took a deep breath. "Nami...I'm your twin brother."

"...WHAAAAT!"

Nami then promptly fainted from shock, Sanji dropped his cigarette, and everyone else went wide eyed.

"...That went pretty much as planned." Ichigo said. Chad only grunted in agreement.

-END-

Zrocker119: If you saw that coming then give yourself a pat on the back. I've been thinking about this for s a while now and thought why not? To answer some questions Chad and Ichigo will be having their powers but not the way you think. I'll be explaining that in the next chapter. Ichigo's background will be done after they leave Alabasta. There might be pairings, but I haven't decided yet. Till next time favorite and review, flames will be ignored.


	3. New Nakama

Zrocker119:I'm going to say this one time and one time only. This will not be a harem story, nothing against them, but I don't want this to be one. Besides a having a harem would be out of Ichigo's character. Romance will be minor in this. The story will mostly focus on Chad's and Ichigo's integration into the Strawhats. It has been said so let it be done.

"normal speech"

'thoughts'

~hollow~

-START-

Nami woke to the sight of her crew mates hovering over her. "I had the strangest dream." She said sitting up. Rubbing the side of her head she could feel a small bump. "A guy with orange hair showed up and said he was my tw-" Nami finally noticed that the guy she was talking about was standing off to the side, palming his face.

"Don't worry." His friend said getting their attention. "Ichigo did the same thing when he learned about you."

"Traitor." They heard Ichigo mumble.

"Yaaay, now Nami has a brother too!" Luffy shouted excitedly.

"You can't be serious!?" Nami snapped shaking her head in denial. "There's no way I can have a brother." Ichigo walked and knelt down in front of her. Rummaging around in his cloths he eventually pulled out a picture.

"You're the one on the left." He said handing it to her. Taking it her eyed widened. The picture had a man with short dark hair wearing a marine uniform. Laying in a bed was a beautiful women with long brown hair. They were both smiling down at the two babies held in their arms, each with a full head of orange hair.

"Their names were Isshin and Masaki Kurosaki. Dad showed me that picture a few minutes before he died."

"H-how.."

"Mom died shortly after we were born. I was told that she always had a weak body and she didn't survive the stress of child birth. Getting that picture taken was her last wish." Nami covered her mouth as tears fell down her face. It was her in the picture. "When you disappeared dad tried to looking but you know how that went. He eventually gave up. A few weeks before his death, he heard a rumor about an orange haired thief that only stole from pirates. He asked me on his deathbed to find you and show you that picture."

Ichigo smiled sadly. "I know you don't know me, but I'm going to change that. So let's try this again." Standing up he jabbed a thumb at his chest. "My name is Ichigo Kurosaki and I'm your older brother."

Nami stared at him. Wiping her face, she stood up and smiled. "Hello Ichigo, I'm Nami and I'm... your sister." She pulls him into a hug that he returned.

"WAAAAHHH!" Luffy, Usopp and Chopper were openly crying, while Zoro and Sanji tried hiding their tears. Chad smiled slightly and Vivi wiped away hers.

-LINE BREAK-

"So your both joining are crew!" Luffy asked in excitement.

"Did I stutter? If becoming a pirate is the best way to protect Nami then yes. I plan to keep my promise to my Oldman." Ichigo declared pointing at the sky. "You hear that you old goat!" Chad nodded following his friends decision.

"Yeah more nakama!"

"... So what are we doing anyway?" Ichigo asked. Vivi began explaining to him and Chad about how Baroque Works was trying to get the country to wipe itself out with the current civil war. As she went on the crew became aware that the air around them started to feel heavy.

"Those bastards." Ichigo growled. Taking a deep breath he calmed down, the heaviness lifting. "So we just need to get to the rebels leader and tell him what's going on." Ichigo put a hand on Vivi's shoulder. "It mostly won't be that easy but we've got to try."

-10 minutes later-

"I'm not going to question what just happened." Ichigo said walking away. Luffy had just waisted most of their food feeding his "students", which were a group of Kung Fu Du-Dong. The crew each had on a clock to protect them from the sun, with the exception of Ichigo who pulled up his hood.

"This place is a ghost town." Ichigo comments looking at the abandoned town around them.

"Until recently this town use to be full of people and plants, but 3 years without rain has forced people to leave. The only place to get rain was the capital. People called it the Kings Miracle, until that day..." Vivi said gravely.

"What happened?" Luffy was curious.

"Large cashes of Dance Pouder were found being carried off of ships and being delivered to the palace."

"Dance powder?" Ichigo rubbed his chin. "I've heard of that before. Something about burning it causes rain to fall."

"Wouldn't that be a good thing for a country like this?" Usopp said.

"Think about it, it has to get the moisture to make the clouds from somewhere. Most likely it steals it from other clouds. This would cause a droughts for neighboring countries." Everyone stopped to stare at Chad who suddenly spoke(who also hadn't said anymore than 10 words since meeting him).

"That's right." Vivi confirmed.

Ichigo glared. "I know the king, he wouldn't have done something like that. Baroque Works must have framed him to start a war." That heavy feeling started to come back, growing stronger with each word he spoke. "Crocodile." He spoke like the name was venomous. He hit a near by building causing it to collapse. He wasn't the only one as Luffy did the same a second later.

"Let's go, I'm anxious now."

-LINE BREAK-

"SOOOOO HOOOTTTT!"

"Shut up!" Snapped Ichigo, tired of listening to Luffy's constant complaining. The heat was taking its toll on all of them. Poor Chopper got the worst of it. it got so bad that Chad was carrying him.

"Here." Ichigo offered Vivi his water.

"I'm fine Ichigo. I grew up here so I'm use to the heat." Vivi waved him off.

"Use to it or not take a drink, I'm not giving you an option." She pouted cutely at him, but took a drink. "Was that so hard?"

"Meany strawberry." She whispered loud enough for him to hear.

"It doesn't mean that damn it!" He shouted causing her and everyone else to laugh.

"Hey Ichigo can I ask you a question?" Zoro asked.

"Shoot."

"Did you and Chad eat a devil fruit?"

Ichigo looked at him, brow raised. "What gave you that impression?"

"The 2 of you took out those marine ships like they were nothing. Even Luffy has to try to do that and he ate a devil fruit."

"Yep I'm a rubber man." Luffy said stretching his cheek to an impossible length and letting it snap back into place.

"Cool, strange but cool." Ichigo said nodding to Luffy who laughed. "To answer your question Zoro, no we didn't. Our abilities are... Complicated." When all he received were curious looks he sighed and looked to Chad for help. Chad just gave him a shrug.

Sighing again Ichigo pinched the bridge of his nose. "Remember when I said my mom was always weak?" When he received nods Ichigo continued. "She wasn't the only one. I was much worse. I couldn't even breath without the help of a machine. It got to the point that the doctors thought I wouldn't make. My father was a superstitious person, so when he heard that there was a way to help me he didn't hesitate. There was an island that held a shrine to a Shinigami or God of death." Everyone's eyes widened. "He brought me there and beg for my life, and he got an answer." Ichigo drew his blades and stared at them.

"The Shinigami told my father the only way to save me was to unleash my hidden instincts. My father asked what he wanted in exchange for this." Ichigo gave a dry laugh. "All he said was that I provide him with entertainment. My father told me that I was enveloped by a light and I could breath normally. I no longer cried out in pain, that I looked at him and giggled for the first time. I was healthy, no better. I was stronger, faster and could heal at incredible rates. It wasn't until I was 7 that I blacked out for the first time."

"I remember." Vivi spoke up. "We went to go play with our friends and ended up getting attached by some thugs. I was knocked out at some point."

"The only thing I remember is waking up and the thugs were all dead, my hands covered in blood. The next incident was when I was 13. This man... No demon started to appear in my dreams. He tolled me that I was the king and him my horse. As long as I didn't become weak he would lend me his power. If I did he would throw me to the ground, crush my skull and take my place. When I asked him his name he cackled madly and said..."

-FLASHBACK 5 YEARS AGO-

~Abandon your fear. Look forward. Move forward and never stop. You'll age if you pull back. You'll die if you hesitate. We're stuck together, so it'll be a pain if my land lord were to croak. So tear the heavens asunder for my name is...~

-PRESENT-

"...Zangetsu. I've had these blades and power ever since." Ichigo looked to see them looking at him,wide eyed and open mouthed. He couldn't help but laugh. "Now you know why I don't really tell people."

"That's quite the tale." Everyone agreed with Zoro's analysis. "What about you?" He asked Chad.

"Mines a lot less complicated. I've simply been around Ichigo so much that his power has rubbed off on me." His right arm was covered in a black armor, a red stripe with white edges ran the length of his arm that ends in a Y shape that protruded from his shoulder. His wrist also has little points on it.

"Sugoi! So it's a mystery power." Luffy planted his fist in his open hand.

"Does that mean we'll develop abilities if we hang around you?" Sanji asked taking a drag of his cigarette.

"No." Ichigo Xd his arms. "I've learned to control my power to the point that it won't cause this to happen again. Otherwise all to marines that were apart of my crew would have abilities."

"Your crew?"

"Ichigo was a marine captain." Man, Vivi sure knows how to drop the bomb.

"EEEEEEHHHHHH!"

"And uncle Isshin was a vice admiral." Damn it Vivi! The mind can only take so much. They all turned to Chad.

"Lieutenant."

"Why'd you guys leave?" Nami couldn't understand. If they left 2 years ago that would've made them 16. She had never heard of any other marine that achieved that rank at such a young age.

"...We're burning sun light, we should get moving before it gets dark." Ichigo Said changing the subject. Clearly he didn't want to talk about it. They all, even Luffy, took the hint and dropped it.

The events that occur over the next few hours go are as such. Luffy found some unconscious birds, birds ended up stealing all of their gear. Luffy chases birds then gets chased by a giant lizard that was also chasing a camel. All guys of the crew, excluding Chopper and Usopp, proceed to kill lizard. Sangi then cooks them all a delicious meal made of said lizard. The camel they saved turns out to be a pervert that only lets women ride him. Ichigo then learns that his younger twin sister can be bit of a bitch, as she and Vivi ride their new friend, named eyebrows leaving the rest of them in the dust.

"Your evil." Ichigo said when they finally caught up. The sun had set awhile ago and the temperature dropped with it.

"I can see Yuba." Luffy said pointing at the distant town. As they got closer the wind started to pick up.

"A SAND STORM!"

-LINE BREAK-

"This can't be..." Vivi looked in horror at the remains of the oasis.

They walked to the center of the town where they found an oldman digging. "Travelers... I'm sorry to tell you but this towns running a little dry." He stopped and faced them smiling. "You all must be tired. Feel free to rest at one of the inns."

"We heard that the rebellion was stationed here." The mans smile fell.

"Don't tell me your here to join those fools!" He shouted, catching them off guard. "Their no longer here. They moved to Kato-Rea when this place couldn't support them."

"Ah..." Vivi was at a lost for words.

"What's wrong Vivi?" Luffy asked confused.

"That's the oasis next to Nano-Hana." Ichigo spoke breaking the news to them.

"So we came here for nothing?!"

"Did you say Vivi?" The oldman perked up getting a closer look at her. "Is that really you princess?" He said, tears coming to his eyes.

"... Mr. Toto...?" Vivi covers her mouth almost crying as she remembers her friends father.

-FLASHBACK 11 YEARS AGO-

A 5 year old Vivi and 7 year old Ichigo could be found standing around in the palace , when they saw a boy around their age running towards them crying. This was Kohza, future leader of the rebellion and soon to be friends of Vivi and Ichigo.

"What's wrong with you? Crybaby!" Vivi asked making Ichigo sigh.

"What do you want midget...?" Yeah this wasn't going to end well.

King Kobra was talking with Toto about their living arrangements in Alubarna when Isshin walked in.

"Kobra!"

"Isshin!" The 2 friend embraced each other as if they were brothers. "What are you doing here? I thought you were patrolling the island."

"As far as the navy is concerned I still am." Isshin replied and waved dismissively. "Don't worry my lieutenant is taking care of it." He then smiled perversely. "Besides I wanted to visit Ichigo and my future daughter in law. I haven't seen them in months." The fathers shared a laugh at the expense of their children... one that ended when a beaten and bruised Vivi came in with Ichigo.

"What happened?!" They both shouted.

"I got in a fight... and lost." Isshin glared and points at Ichigo.

"Why didn't you stop this?!"

"When I tried the midget pit me!" Ichigo said pointing accusingly at Vivi.

"I'm not a midget strawberry!"

"It doesn't mean that!" Vivi tackled him and they rolled all over the floor, throwing kicks and punches.

"Now now, none of that." Isshin said trying to break up the fight. His means to peace backfired, as the kids quickly turned their wrath on him. "KOBRA, ARE CHILDREN ARE SO MEAN TO ME!" Kobra fell to the floor holding his stomach in laughter.

As the days went on Ichigo and Vivi met with Kohza often and eventually went on to play with him and his friends, after Vivi beat him in a fight and became the sub leader of their group. Of course Isshin and Kobra would follow them to make sure they were safe like any normal parents would. The one time they chose not to would become a day they would never forget.

Ichigo and Vivi ran through the streets laughing along the way. Looking forward to playing with their friends. Arriving at the usual spot, they found their friends fighting off a group of men.

"RUN! They're here for Vivi!" Kohza shouted at them.

"There she is, GET HER!" One bandit broke through and charged them. His advance was cut off when Ichigo's foot was planted in his face.

"I won't let you hurt Vivi!" Tackling the man, Ichigo began to rain down blow after blow. Vivi froze up, failing to see a kidnapper sneak up behind her.

The man was able to get the boy of him by smashing his face with a club. Getting back up Ichigo saw Vivi get knocked out. Watching his closest friend being hurt made him snap.

All of the kids fell unconscious do to a sudden force that could be felt from a mile away.

"Wha-" The leader of the kidnappers was cut off when his stomach exploded in pain. He looked down to find Ichigo's hand impaled through it. Yanking his hand out, he let him fall to the ground dead. The rest of the kidnappers froze when Ichigo slowly looked at them. His sclera were black with yellow irises. When he spoke it sounded like 2 voices were speaking simultaneously.

~You'll pay for hurting my queen~

Isshin, Kobra and Igaram arrived at what looked like a massacre had accrued. Bodies were thrown all over the place. Some missing limbs, torn in half and others gutted where they stood. Thankfully all the children were unconscious, except for one.

Standing in the middle of it all was a blood soaked Ichigo. He was looking at his hands in shock. Turning to them he spoke in a shaking voice tears running freely. "Daddy... what's happening to me?" Isshin pulled his son into a hug, squeezing him tightly as Ichigo cried into his chest.

-PRESENT-

Ichigo found himself thinking of that day as he sat on the roof of the inn. Everyone else was inside asleep. The sound of foot steps brought him out of his thoughts.

"Can't sleep?" He asked when Vivi came up.

She jumped at his voice. "Oh... Sorry, I thought you were asleep." Ichigo dusted off a spot next to him and patted it. Vivi took the offered seat. They sat in a comfortable silence, looking out over the seemingly endless sea of sand.

"I know this isn't what you want to hear," Ichigo began. "But we both know that the chances of stopping this rebellion without blood shed are low."

"I know bu-"

"I'm not finished." Ichigo cut her off. "But even so doesn't mean we still can't try." He grabbed her hand and faced her, giving her one of his rare smiles. "Even if I have to beat some sense into Kohza my self... we will stop this madness. That's a Kurosaki promise." Vivi smiled as well. Leaning in she kissed him on the cheek, making his face go red.

"Thank you Ichigo."

Ichigo looked away scratching his cheek. " Don't thank me, thank my new idiot of a captain." Vivi nodded and got up going to bed. Ichigo caught himself staring after her retreating form. Still red, he tentatively rubbed his cheek.

~About damn time~

...and like that the moment was ruined. Getting up he followed after her. The days only got harder from here.

-END-

Zrocker119:FEEEW that took awhile. I know things seem to be moving fast, but that's so I can get to the more interesting parts. A little IchiVi in this chapter. Vivi will be his only love interest, no exceptions. Some of Ichigo's past is shown and will continue to be revealed later on. Till next time follow/favorite and reviews people, don't be shy!


	4. Rainbase

Zrocker119:

"normal speech"

'thoughts'

~hollow~

-START-

"Take care of yourself, Mr. Toto." Ichigo said the next morning as they got ready to leave.

"Wait Luffy take this." Toto handed him a small barrel of water. "This is all I was able to get."

"Wow thanks! I'll drink it carefully." With that the Strawhats waved goodbye and went on their way. They were walking for some time when Luffy just sat down by a dead tree.

"What's wrong Luffy?" Vivi questions making everyone halt wondering what was up.

"I quit."

"Huh." Was their intelligent response.

"I quit, I'm done." Luffy said again. So they didn't hear wrong.

"This isn't the time to joke around!" Sanji shouted.

"Vivi?" Luffy ignored Sanji's rant.

"Yes?"

"I want to fight Crocodile!" They all looked at him eyes wide. "Even if we stop the rebellion, will that stop Crocodile? Will people except the help of pirates?" Ichigo was caught off guard by Luffy's sudden sense of reasoning. "You don't want anyone to die in this war! The people of your country or us!" He spoke calmly but his time had an underlying bite to it. "A war that over a million people and a Shichibukai are involved in and you want no one to die!"

"..."

"That's naive."

"What's wrong with-!" Vivi stopped feeling Ichigo's hand on her shoulder.

"Maybe it is. You think we don't know that!" Ichigo raised his voice. "There has never been a war without death." He gestured to all of them. "That's why there's people like us, that try to save as many lives as possible." Looking down Ichigo scratched the back of his head. "Look I know I just joined your crew yesterday and you have know reason to listen to what I say." He looked at Luffy with eyes full of unwavering will.

"But please," he took Vivi's hand in his and Chad stood by them. "We're asking you to risk your lives, along with ours to save this country."

Luffy looked at the sand, his hat shadowing out his eyes. He rested a hand on his hat before smiling. "Shishishi of course we will. We're friends aren't we?" Vivi watched as everyone smiled and nodded at her, bringing her to tears.

"Thank you, thank you." She cried.

"Now!" Luffy became serious. "Where is Crocodile?!"

-LINE BREAK-

"Crocodile operates from here." Vivi points at the map. "An oasis called Rainbase. It's north of Yuba about a days walk from here."

"Is there water there?" Chopper asked.

"Yeah, it's a gambling town separate from all the fighting." Vivi said.

"Gambling!" Ichigo saw Nami's eye get replaced by beli signs. It was quite unnerving.

"North aye, we best get moving." Zoro began walking... In the opposite direction.

"North's that way." Chad pointed out. Zoro quickly walked past him grumbling how he knew that. Nami and Vivi got on the camel, Ichigo was sure it glared at him when he helped Vivi up. They were on their way. Of course it didn't take long for Luffy and Usopp to start panting like dogs.

"Vivi, when I'm done with Crocodile, you gotta feed me until I explode."

Vivi smiled at him. "I promise."

"Hey! Don't think that you're the only one that gets to fight him! I'm gonna kick his ass for putting Vivi in this situation." Ichigo declared.

"Nope I'm captain, so I get to fight him." The two glared at one another, lighting shooting between their eyes. It soon turned into them rolling in the sand throwing punches and kicks. They some how kept in the right direction while doing so. From their spot on the camel, Vivi and Nami laughed at the bickering friends. Even Chad cracked a small smile.

"They seem to be getting along." Nami stated and looked at Chad, who started walking next to them. "How did you two meet?"

"We were 14 at the time. Ichigo saved me from a group of thugs when I refused to fight back."

Vivi tilted her head to the side. "Why wouldn't you fight back?"

"I promised my Aluelo that I would never fight for myself, only for others." He fingered a coin that they just realized hung around his neck. "After Ichigo saved me we made a pact. We would always fight for each other and protect one another. So I joined him and his dad's crew. Been watching his back ever since."

"He's lucky to have a friend like you." Vivi said with a smile.

"No, we're lucky to have a friend like him."

"AAHHH, you bit me!" Their bonding was cut of by Ichigo shouting.

Having had enough Chad calmly walk up to them, his right arm changed.

"Chad? What are you- OWW!" The girls winced as Ichigo and Luffy were smacked with an armored fist.

-LINE BREAK-

They managed to make it to Rainbase without further incidents, less they wanted to suffer the wrath of Chad. Ichigo and Luffy served as a warning, sporting large bumps on their heads. Made of rubber or not they hurt like hell.

"CROCODILE, YOU ARE SCREWED!" Luffy shouted once their destination was in sight.

"Nami." Ichigo said getting her attention. "How do you plan to fight? I don't see a weapon on you."

"Hold that thought. Usopp is it ready?"

Usopp pulled out pieces to a collapsible staff. "Yeah, this is your new weapon. The Clima Tact. Its attack depends on how you put it together." He explained handing it to her.

"Think they know we're coming?" Zoro asked.

"Mostly we ran into Mr. 2 and Mr. 3 is here." Vivi reasoned.

"We should be careful then. They know what we look like, and we have know idea where they'll attack from." Explained Usopp thinking of a way to sneak in without getting spotted.

Ichigo smirked. "Yeah they know what YOU look like." He jesters to Chad and himself. "They don't have me and Chad made yet, and we've got the element of surprise. As long as we don't make a scene we've got the advantage."

-LINE BREAK-

"YOU HAD ONE JOB YOU TWO!" Ichigo was quickly learning a very important thing about his new crew. The Strawhats don't do stealthy. Luffy and Usopp had gone to get water for rest of them. They brought the water... as well as a squadron of marines led by Captain Smoker, who is known for hunting down pirates with extreme prejudice. There was no way that their luck was this bad. They were now making a mad dash for the casino where Crocodile was.

"What about Chopper." Vivi realized he was still not back.

"Chads with him, he'll be fine." They nodded knowing that Chopper would be safe. They knew he could take care of himself, but Chad being with him took away a lot of the worry off.

"We should scatter!" Sanji suggested.

"Yeah! We'll meet up in the casino!" They broke off from one another. Luffy got Smoker to go after him. Sanji, Usopp and Nami stuck together. Zoro went on his own, and Ichigo held onto Vivi before they vanishing from sight.

-Mean while in the casino-

"Princess Vivi is here, along with those pirates?" Crocodile asked making sure he heard right.

"Yes, and two other people that I haven't seen before." Reported his partner, Ms. All Sunday.

Crocodile barked out in laughter. "It doesn't matter. Bring those rats in to see me."

"Sure."

-3 minutes later-

Luffy and Usopp stared blankly at the cell wall they were stuck in. With them was Nami, Zoro and somehow Captain Smoker.

"... This was quite the clever trap." Luffy and Usopp said coming to the same conclusion.

"You're both idiots!" Nami shouted. Luffy hung off the bars and suddenly felt weak.

"Luffy!" Zoro's warning gave Luffy enough time to turn and see Smoker hit him and get pinned to the floor with his club. He tried getting up but...

"Why do I feel like I'm in water?" He groans out.

"The end of this club is made of seastone. It gives off the same energy as the sea. Making devil fruit users weak."

"The bars are made of the same thing then." Nami concluded.

"I'd be long gone if it weren't. After destroying you all of course." He added threateningly. Zoro got ready for a fight.

"Now isn't the time for this!" Shouts a panicked Usopp.

"This is entertaining." They all looked outside the cell and saw, sitting on a couch, was Crocodile himself. "Can't you all just be friends."

"Crocodile." Growled Smoker.

Luffy sat up. "So your... Crocodile!" He said grabbing the bars. Like the idiot he his, Luffy forgot what they did to him and started feeling dizzy.

"Calm down Strawhat, I'll kill you soon." Crocodile smiled creepily. "We're just waiting for the guest of honor."

-LINE BREAK-

Things weren't looking good for Ichigo and Vivi. They were both surrounded by a large group a Baroque Work agents. Ichigo had both blades drawn doing his best to protect Vivi. He could do this all day but the fatigue was getting to her.

'I might have to use that'

His thoughts were cut short when another agent charged. One sword swipe later and another one added to the growing body count. One went to hit a distracted Vivi when he fell to the ground unconscious, courtesy of the new comer.

"Nice to see you again princess."

"Pell!" Vivi cried out in joy seeing the strongest warrior in Alabasta.

"Please wait a moment, this will be over soon." Pell's body became covered in feathers, his hand turned into talons and his head became that of a falcons. He had eaten the ToriTori fruit model falcon. One of the only 5 flying devil fruits discovered. With the combined efforts of him and Ichigo, the Baroque Works were all on the ground in an instant.

"It's a pleasant surprise to see you Ichigo." Pell smiled.

"Likewise."

"What have we here?" A feminine voice asked. Ichigo and Pell face who ever spoke, each with their respective weapons drawn. "You really did a number on my men. Now I can't use them." Said Ms. All Sunday. Her eyes widened when she felt both of Ichigo's swords at her throw. She didn't even see him move.

"Don't even think about moving."

Getting over her shock she smiled. "Tres Fleur." Four arms appeared out of no where and grabbed Ichigo's. "Clutch."

Ichigo cried out in pain as his arms were bent backwards broken.

"ICHIGO!" Enraged, Pell switched to his hybrid form and attacked. Arms appeared around him as well, in larger numbers than what he just witnessed.

"I ate the HanaHana fruit. Anywhere I want, I can make any part of my body grow... Clutch." Pell was broken like a twig. "Now let's get going, the boss is waiting along with your friends." Ms. All Sunday was stopped when Ichigo picked himself of the ground, still holding his swords. "Just stop. You can't fight with your arms broken." Her smile vanished when he chuckled.

"Who said they were broken." With a sickening snap his arms bent back into place. As he calmly walked towards her, Ms. All Sunday was shocked yet again when he sheathed his swords and helped Vivi to her feet. "We wouldn't want to keep Crocodile waiting now would we."

"Ichigo?" Vivi wasn't sure what was going on.

"It'll be easier if we go with her for now." He reassured her. "Lead the way." Ms. All Sunday tried ready his face but found that it betrayed nothing of his intentions. Putting on a smile she led them to the casino. Where Crocodile would be waiting.

-LIBE BREAK-

"Ok ok, how about this..."

"Baahhhaahh." Luffy and Usopp were making the best of their imprisonment. Doing impressions of their crew mates.

"You had one job you two." Luffy was currently doing an angry Ichigo.

"BE SERIOUS!" Their fun was ended by Nami's fists being planted into their skulls. Zoro picked himself off the floor, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Morning already."

"IT'S THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY!" Nami sore that she was surrounded by idiots.

"You're quite the interesting crew." Crocodile commentes off handedly.

Nami put her hands on her hips. "I wouldn't be so relaxed, once we get out of this cage these guys will kick your ass. Right luffy?!" He yells in agreement.

"You place a lot of trust in your captain... what a useless thing."

"CROCODILE!"

All eyes turned to the stairs. Standing at the top was Vivi, Ichigo and Ms. All Sunday.

"VIVI, ICHIGO!" Smokers eyes widened when he saw Ichigo.

'What's the hells Kurosaki doing here, and how does he know the Strawhats?!'

"Welcome princess, or is it Ms. Wednesday." Crocodile greeted bowing mockingly. His eyes furrowed when he noticed Ichigo. "Ms. All Sunday, I only asked for the princess."

"Apologies, but Mr. Kurosaki was quite adamant on coming along." She replied smiling. Not being able to take it, Vivi charged at Crocodile with her peacock blades spinning. Ignoring the cries of her friends she lashed out at Crocodile, who sat calmly as the blade connected to his head. Instead of exploding into a gory mess, he turned into sand. Vivi froze when his hand wrapped around her mouth.

"I ate the SunaSuna fruit. Shall I-!" He was cut of literally. Ichigo appeared behind him and slashed at his neck with his larger sword. Crocodile thought nothing of it, until he felt his blade cut his skin. He quickly turns into sand and reforms at a safe distance. A thin line of blood running down his neck.

"Next time," Ichigo had his arm wrapped protectively around Vivi while his other pointed his blade at him. "You'll get more than just a scratch. Zangetsu and I don't like it when people we care about are threatened."

Crocodile was enraged that this... BOY was able to injure him. Regaining his cool he turned to his partner. "It's about that time, is it not?"

She checked her pocket watch. Smiling she nodded. "It's past 7."

-LIBE BREAK-

Everyone was seething with rage when Crocodile finished explaining to them his plan. The only thing stopping Ichigo was that Crocodile had positioned himself in front of the glass. If he attacked, Crocodile would just dodge and he would break the glass, flooding the room and drowning them all.

"HOW CAN YOU BE SO CRUEL?!" Vivi cried.

"You should be happy Ms. Wednesday, after all you helped make this happen."

"Shut up." Ichigo growled, his eyes shadowed out by his hair. He looked up at Crocodile, who almost flinched when he saw that Ichigo's left eyes had turned black and his iris yellow. "I'll kill you before this is over."

Vivi got out of Ichigo's grip and ran to the cage that trapped their friends. "WE CAN STILL STOP YOU! If we can make to Alubarna before the rebellion, we can stop them."

Crocodile responds with by saying that they were heading there as well. Not elaborating further he pulls out a key. "Do try and stop us. This is the key to their cage." He drops it on the ground, where a pit opens up. They watch as it landed in the room below them. Vivi watched in horror when a Bananadile walked in and ate the key. "You have two choices Mr. Kurosaki, come after me and leave her to get eaten by a Bananadile, or stay and let us leave." Crocodile grinned when Ichigo walked over and stood by Vivi. "Wise choice." He went to leave but stopped. "Oh I almost forgot. This room is set to blow in one hour." With that said the two villains turned to leave.

"Let me ask you one thing." Crocodile decided to humor Ichigo and nodded. "Are you the one making those sand storms. The ones that keep hitting Yuba?!"

"Of course, when was the last time you've heard of so many storms hitting on place."

"... Come on Vivi, we've got a 'Crocodile' to kill." Crocodile understood what he implied and laughed. The room began to flood causing everyone to panic. To make matters worse one of the Bananadiles came up through the floor.

Crocodiles laughter was interrupted by a ringing. Ms. All Sunday pulled out a baby transponder snail.

"Hello?" Came a deep voice that the Strawhats recognized.

"What is it?!" Crocodile was getting tired of these interruptions.

"I know that voice, hey pass that to me." The sound of the snail being past to someone else could be heard. "Welcome sir, this is the shitty restaurant." It was Sanji.

"Shitty restaurant... You're the one from little garden." Crocodile remembered.

"Call me Mr. Prince now how abou- HEY GIVE THAT BACK!"

-LINE BREAK-

"Sorry about that." Chad apologized taking back the snail.

"And who is this?"

"Not important Crocodile, or should I call you Mr. 0." Crocodile was getting impatient. Chad nodded over to Sanji and Chopper. Understanding what to do they got ready. Sanji walked into the casino and Chopper changed into his heavy point, throwing on a cloak. "All of your men are down. Unless you want this whole place to come down on top of you, I suggest you let my crew go."

"That'll just kill them faster. Your not very good at making threats."

"The only one who can't swim is Luffy. I'm sure one of the others can take care of him." Chad retorted. He heard Ichigo shout something about an excellent point.

"... Or I can come up their and kill you."

"Come and try." With that Chad hung up.

-LINE BREAK-

"That went well." Ichigo said climbed on top of a moving crab. The camel that they saved happen to be from here and convinced it to give them a ride. His thoughts drifted to his conversation with smoker.

-FLASHBACK 5 MINUTES-

"Kurosaki, why are you with the Strawhats? What about your crew?!"

"Didn't H.Q. tell you?" All he received was a blank stare. "I resigned 2 years back."

"That was when your father died. Sorry about him. He was a good man, a good marine." Smoker said giving his condolences. "But why the Strawhats?!" Ichigo ran of but not before Smoker heard him say.

"I do anything to protect my family."

-END FLASHBACK-

Hearing Vivi scream Ichigo looked up to see her get grabbed by Crocodiles hook. Before he could do anything, Luffy pushed her and took her place.

"LUFFY!"

"GO I'LL BE FINE! MAKE SURE VIVI GETS TO THE PALACE!" He said smiling at them. They hesitated but nodded. Chopper made the crab move full speed ahead. Their destination... Alubarna.

-END-

Zrocker119: the Alabasta arc should be wrapped up within 2 chapters. How they escaped from the cage is the same as canon. Ichigo and Chad aren't strong enough to break seastone I didn't change anything. As always favorite/follow and review.


	5. Out of time

Zrocker119:authors note at the end.

"normal speech"

'thoughts'

~hollow~

-START-

"WE CAN'T JUST LEAVE HIM!" Vivi cried trying to get them to stop and help Luffy.

"He'll be fine. No one who has fought him got away unharmed." Nami said receiving nods from the crew. They were pretty much use to him doing the impossible at this point.

"Lets put our faith in him." Ichigo agreed. "We've got to focus on getting to Alubarna." The rebellion had to be stopped before it was to late and they only had a small window to do so. "LUFFY!" Hearing his name he looked back and saw Ichigo pointing at him. "YOU BETTER WIN, OR I'LL BRING YOU BACK JUST SO I CAN KICK YOUR ASS MYSELF!"

"OKAY!" They were soon out of sight.

"I think it's time we ended this little game." Crocodile said.

"Yosh! I'm gonna kick your ass." Luffy started doing some stretches. "If I don't then Ichigo gets to fight you." The two of them came to an agreement earlier. If you lost the other one got a turn... Luffy really doesn't want Ichigo to have a turn.

His care free attitude caused Ms. All Sunday to giggle.

"What's so funny. Nico Robin?" Crocodile growled.

"Nothing. I thought you promised not to call me that?" She started walking away. "I'll move ahead to Alubarna."

Muttering something about a crazy woman, crocodile reached in his pocket and pulls out a hour glass. He taused it to the ground. "I'll give you 3 minutes."

"Fine by me." Luffy cocked his arm back. "Gomu-Gomu Pistol!" Crocodile casually leaned to the side, letting the fist sail right past his face. Rushing forward he tried catching Luffy's neck with his hook, only for him to bend back at the last second.

"Gomu-Gome..." He pulled his foot back. "STAMP!" Crocodiles chest turned into sand having nullified Luffy's attack, much to his frustration. "Gomu-Gomu GATLING!" He punched rapidly making it seem like he had multiple arms. Everyone of them past harmlessly through his target.

"You can never..."

"BAZOOKA!" Luffy cut him of. Not finished he streched his leg into the air. "AXE!" It hit the ground kicking up a large cloud of sand. ' did I crush him?'

"As I was saying, you ca-!" Crocodile's head explodes into sand again as Luffy punched him.

"What the hell are you trying to say?!" Luffy panted out of breath.

"... Time to end this game."

"I'VE BEEN FIGHTING SERIOUSLY!" Luffy spoke. Why can't he hit him. None of his attacks have done a thing. He just keeps dissolving into sand.

"We're in different leagues Strawhat." Raising his hand, Crocodile brought it down in a slashing motion. "DESERT SPADA!"

Luffy acted on instinct. He dove to the side, just in time. In the area of desert he once stood was a deep gash. It was as if the desert was cut in half. Crocodile gave him no time to recover. He slammed his palm to the ground, calling out his next attack.

"DESERT GIRASOLE!" Luffy found himself being pulled into the ground. Thinking quickly he used his bazooka to launch himself into the air, out of the sinkhole. He laced his fingers together. If he couldn't hit Crocodile, then he'd capture him. Luffy tried to get him in his net, only for his hands to be caught.

"WHIP!" Crocodile didn't even flinch as Luffy's kick cut him in half. Pulling him in close he slashed at his arm. Luffy cried out in pain. Glancing at his arm, he saw that the appendage had shriveledup to his bone.

"I sucked all of the water out of your arm. Sand does that after all." Crocodile said cockily. Wait, water. Luffy ran over to his cloak that he discarded earlier. Looking through it he found what he was looking for. The water oldman Toto gave him. Taking a gulp of water, his arm became restored.

"It doesn't work that way." Well screw you Crocodile, One Piece is all about defining logic.

"Old sandy guy spent all night getting this water for me. He and Yuba will never be defeated by sand. GomuGomu CHOMP!" He charged Crocodile...and ate his upper half...what the...?

"ENOUGH BULLSHIT!" Forcing himself from Luffy's mouth, Crocodile was done playing around. Sand started swirling sound the palm of his hand. It grew until it became a small sand storm. "Did you know that that the wind here always blows from north to south? Tell me Strawhat, where do you think this storm will hit when it's nice and big?" Luffy's eyes widened in horror, realizing what he meant.

-LINE BREAK-

Ichigo's head shot up. One ability that he used quite often was one that aloud him to sense energy of other people. He just felt Crocodile's jump. Shortly after a sandstorm appeared from RainBase. Crocodile was the one that made it. It started to head south and Ichigo's anger rose.

"ICHIGO!?" Vivi yelled as he tried to jump off the crab. Try being the key word. Chad chopped him on the back of his neck, knocking him unconscious. "What was he trying to do?"

"That sandstorms going to hit Yuba." Chad laid Ichigo down. "He was going to try and get there first."

"Mr. Toto." Vivi covers her mouth as Chad nods. They all felt a sudden sense of dread.

"One thing you need to know about Ichigo, is that he hates it when the people he cares for are in danger. He'll do anything to protect those dear to him, even if it cost him his life." Vivi smiled. He hadn't really changed over the years he had been away. He was always around to protect her. Ichigo groaning brought her out of her thoughts.

"Damn..." He clutched his head then sent an glare at Chad. A lesser man probably would've been reduced to a quivering mess.

"You were going to do something stupid." Chad took it in strides. Ichigo muttered to himself before looking back at the growing sandstorm. "He'll be fine Ichigo."

"He seems like a tough oldman." Zoro pitched in. "A sandstorm won't stop him."

"I know... Doesn't mean I have to like it." Ichigo drew his swords and sat crosslegged with them in his lap and closed his eyes. Clearing his mind he opened his eyes. The world around him had changed. The endless desert was replaced by an endless city of tall buildings. The strange thing was that the whole city was sideways. This was his inner world.

His instincts kicked in and he jumped backwards as a sword stabbed into the spot where he sat a second ago. It was an exact copy of his larger sword, the only difference was that it was white instead of black.

~Nice dodge Kingy~ A white hand grabbed the handle. Following the arm Ichigo came face to face with a pale version of himself. He wore the same clothes as Ichigo but with the colors inverted, and his eyes were yellow and black. He also radiated a large amount of blood lust. He casually propped the large blade on his shoulder while holding the smaller one in his left hand. This matched with his crazed smile and murderess glint in his eye, gave him the appearence of 'not to be fucked with'. This was Zangetsu, the source of his power.

"Can you NOT attack me went I come here for once!" Ichigo asked.

~Nope~ Zangetsu cackles madly as Ichigo sighs. ~So what do you want anyway? Oh-oh, please tell me you've finally decided to bang that Vivi chick!~ His laughter ceased due to Ichigo's fist meeting his face.

"I DON'T SEE HER THAT WAY!" Even as he said that he couldn't stop a blush from creeping onto his cheeks.

~Denie it all you want, but I'm your instincts.~ Zangetsu stated matter of factly. He then jabbed a finger in Ichigo's chest. ~Besides I already decided that she's gonna be our queen.~

"But she's...she's..."

~Got exotic hair, curves body, long legs, a great ass and looks good in that dancers outfit...need I keep going?~ Ichigo opened his mouth to retort but closed it when he couldn't come up with anything to say. ~Hmhm that's what I thought so your argument is invalid!~ Zangetsu said smirking victoriously.

He blocked a slash to his neck with his larger blade. He returned it with a slash aimed to Ichigo's head, who blocked it with his other blade as well. Ichigo tilted his blades causing Zangetsu to lose his balence. Instead of falling, Zangetsu used the momentum and spun, dodging between the blades that aimed to cut him in three.

Throwing one of his blades to the side he grabbed Ichigo's face and threw him through the building they were fighting on, causing it to collapse. He retrieved his sword that was imbedded in a wall and waited. He sighed and tilted his head to his left.

SHUNK!

He cracked an eye at the blade that was imbedded where his head was a moment before. ~Really Kingy?~ The sword pulled itself out of the wall and flew through the air and into Ichigo's open hand. Zangetsu bounced his sword on his shoulder and smiled evilly. ~Guess it's time I upped your training regiment.~

-LINE BREAK-

As Ichigo sat there a cut appeared on his forehead.

"ICHIGO!" Vivi said alarmed getting everyone's attention. She rushed over to to him but was stopped by Chad. "Let me go! Can't you see that he's... Hurt?" She trails of as the cut was covered by a white substance. It steamed for a second before it disappeared. The wound was completely healed.

"He's fighting with Zangetsu." Chad only recieved confused looks. "He goes to what he calls his inner world and fights him." He tried to explain. Truth be told he didn't know that much about it either. Only that you shouldn't bother Ichigo when he does go there. He turned his attention back to where they left Luffy. He felt that something was wrong.

-LINE BREAK-

This wasn't how Luffy thought he would die. Maybe after becoming the pirate king, but not at the bottom of a desert. He couldn't do anything as he sunk beneath the sand. The hole that Crocodile put in his stomach made sure of that. He had only enough energy to do one thing. He took a deep breath and screamed.

"MEAAAAAAAAT!" Even on his death bed Luffy could only think of food. But just before his head could go under, a bunch of hands sprouted from the sand around him and pulled him up. Now out of the quicksand he looked at his savior. "Thank...you..."

Robin just looked down at him. "Why do you fight...all of you that carry the name "D"..." She asked him. When he continued to stare at her she sighed internally. She created a hand by his hat and tossed it over to them. She caught it and gave it to him.

"I've found you." She glanced be hind her and saw Pell limping towards them, using his sword as a krutch.

"Perfect timing. You can save this boy." She said pointing to Luffy and walked away. "He's one of the ones that brought your princess here." She walked over to her...ride? (I don't know, some strange crocodile thing). "She safe by the way and heading to Alubarna. What happens from here on out, I have no control over."

Pell watched as she left. His inner turmoil rising. What could he do? 'If I couldn't protect Vivi then who can?' His thoughts were interrupted by Luffy.

"Meat!" He growled out.

-LINE BREAK-

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS CRAB CAN'T CROSS WATER?!" Usopp shouted at Vivi.

"Moving Crabs can't stand water." She explained. While they tried to think of a way across the water Ichigo began to stir. Blinking his eyes focused in and he saw everyone panicking. Well, everyone but Chad that is.

"What's going on?" He asked him.

"We need a fast way acrossed the water." Chad informed him. Ichigo looked at the approaching river than back at Chad, then back to the water...and back to Chad again.

"I have an idea."

...

"Repeat that one more time." Nami tolled Ichigo, not sure if she heard him right.

"Ok once more." Ichigo said. His plan was simple. Everyone except himself and Chad climbs onto Eyebrows. Chad changes his arm, picks them all up and throws them across the river. He failed to see what the problem was.

"THAT'S INSANE!" Nami shouted. Never the less, a few seconds later they were all piled on Eyebrows.

"Why aren't you two on?" Usopp pionted at Vivi and Nami.

"No room." Nami had talked Ichigo and Chad into carrying them across.

"What about me?!" Chopper cried. "I can't swim. What happens if I fall in the water?!" Chad agreed to carry him as well. Now that that was over, Chad changed his arm and picked up Eyebrows with ease. He took a step and threw them as hard as he could. They sored through the air until they were a speck on the horizon.

"Good arm Chad as always." Ichigo got nod in response. He picked Vivi up bridal style. Chad did the same to Nami with Chopper holding his neck. "Hold on." They disappeared in a flash of speed and made their way across the river. Vivi's, Nami's and Chopper's cries of fear turned into ones of joy as they sped through the sky.

"How?" Vivi asked noticing that they weren't flying, but that Chad and Ichigo seemed to be jumping.

"I don't really know my self. Think of it like us creating platforms of energy underneath is and kicking off them." Ichigo explained. He was still getting use to some of his abilities himself. They arrived on the other side a few minutes later where Zoro, Sanji and Usopp were waiting. They sent a heated glare at Ichigo who just ignored them.

They now had to travel through this last strech of desert but they had little time. Ichigo said Chad could throw them again, but a collective shouts of No's shot that idea down.

"We have company." Chad pointed at a cloud of dust moving towards them.

"Are they enemies?!" Zoro started to draw his swords. Ichigo squinted trying to get a better look. His eyes widened.

"Karoo?"

"QUAAACK!" Karoo bulldozed into him, knocking him to the ground and started nuzzling his face.

"Nice to see you too." Ichigo breathed out, the wind knocked out of him. He patted Karoo on the head earning him a happy quack.

"It's the super spotted-billed duck squad!" Vivi shouted in happiness. They were the the fastest troop in Alabasta. They still had a chance.

-LINE BREAK-

Everything was going as planned. The remaining number agents of Baroque Works stood outside of Alubarna waiting for the Strawhats. Ms. Merry Christmas was looking through binoculars when she saw an approaching dust cloud.

"DUCKS?!" She shouted getting her colleagues attention. "That must be them, but there's too many of them!" There were six heading at them. With Strawhat delt with there should only be four remaining. Seems that Crocodile forgot to mention that there was more of them.

"Were you not listening earlier? The boss said that there may be more." Ms. Double Finger stated.

"Doesn't matter, as long as the princess is killed." Said Mr. 1 growing irritated at the chatter.

"THEN YOU TELL ME WHICH ONE SHE IS!" All of them wore the same cloaks, making it impossible to tell them apart. They tried to stop them, but they got past splitting up from one another. Chasing after them, they failed to notice one more duck with two figures on its back.

Pulling down their hoods, Ichigo and Vivi silently thanked their friends. "The rebels are almost here. We need to move. Karoo lets go!"

"QUACK!" Karoo ran as fast as he could. If they failed... This country was finished.

-LINE BREAK-

The three of them stood in the path of the approaching rebel army.

"You okay Karoo?" Ichigo noticed that he was shaking a bit. "You know that you don't need to be here."

"Quack." Karoo didn't budge an inch.

This made Ichigo chuckle. He turned to Vivi. Seeing her trembling as well he grabbed her hand. "This will be over soon. Once they know the truth things can get back to the way they used to be." She laced her fingers through his and squeezed his hand. "Ready?"

She nodded and face the army charging at them and shouted as loud as she could.

"STOP! REBELS THIS FIGHT HAS BEEN NOTHING BUT A SETUP!"

Before she could say more a cannon ball exploded in front of them. The smoke blocking them from view.

"THEY FIRE! CHARGE THROUGH! FOR THE COUNTRY!" Kohza rallied his men and charged. He swore that was Vivi's voice he just heard but pushed that thought aside. He rode on, not even seeing that he went right past a shouting Vivi. He was suddenly grabbed by his collar and pulled from his horse. The next thing he knew, he found himself on top of a building inside of the city. A fist sent him crashing to the floor.

"You stupid bastard!" Kohza froze when he saw his old friend standing over him with a pissed off look.

"I-Ichigo?"

"Ichigo!"

"Quack!"

He froze again when Vivi yelled at him with Karoo behind her.

"Sorry, but he deserved that." Ichigo folded his arms, thinking his actions were just.

"Your not helping!" Vivi shouted back. Ichigo childishly stuck his tongue at her.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" Kohza was confused out of his mind. He's punched by a friend he hadn't seen in years and now he was arguing with his other childhood friend. His mind couldn't process what was happening.

Ichigo sighed and held out his hand and helped him up. "Sorry but you deserved that."

"What's going on? Why are you two here?" Ichigo looked at Vivi who nodded.

"Leader this whole war has been a trick."

-END-

Zrocker119:So sorry for the wait. I didn't have writers block(thank god for that)I've just been feeling lazy. Again I apologize for it and will refrain from being so again. Now as you can see things are different from canon near the end there. Things will change more from here on out, not much but they will.

We finally see some of Zangetsu! I made it so that he looked like Ichigo's inner hollow, but his personality is like that of both Oldman Zangetsu and his hollow. So he's still a bit crazy but with a little more control. As for his mask, that won't appear for quite some time, the Skypiea arc at the earliest. Next chapter will be up within a week maybe longer. I'm gonna start to make each chapter longer from now on m. Until next chapter, fav/follow and review.


	6. Saving a country

Zrocker119:to give you a heads up, for the rest of this arc I'll only be doing fights that involve Ichigo or Chad. My reason being, we already know the strength of the rest of the crew. I want to show where Ichigo and Chad are...that and I'm not really good at fight scenes. Like I said its only for this arc so don't hate me. Lastly, I can't remember if I did the disclaimer or not, so I'm doing it now. I do not own Bleach or One Piece in any way, shape or form.

"normal speech"

'thoughts'

~hollow~

Chad, Sanji and Chopper stood shoulder to shoulder as they stared down Mr. 4 and Ms. Merry Christmas. Their plan of separating the enemy had gone perfectly. By the time any of them realized what had happened, it was already to late. Chad could hear the sounds of the two armies near by but shook his head. It was in Ichigo's and Vivi's hands now. All they could do is make sure that they weren't interrupted.

His head snapped to his right. Now Chad wasn't as good at sensing as Ichigo, but after being around their new crew for a few days now he had a pretty good feel for them. He just felt Usopp's take a serious dive. That wasn't good.

"Sanji, we've got this. Go help Usopp." He ordered.

"You sure?" When he recieved a thumbs up he nodded. "Alright you guys make sure you beat them. I don't want them going after Vivi or Nami." Sanji ran off in the direction Chad pointed him in.

"What the hell Mr. 4?! You let him get away!" The woman yelled at her partner.

"Sssssooooooorrrrrrr-." Mr. 4 tried to respond but was cut off.

"Quit being so damn slow! Let's hurry up and kill them and go after the other one!" Ms. Merry Christmas began to change. Her nose became longer, and her hands and feet got long claws. "I ate the MoguMogu fruit. I'm a mole human." She dove into the ground. Mr. 4 set his cannon down and it changed as well. It grew a dog head, legs and then a little tail. They to went under ground.

Chad and Chopper went back to back as holes started to appear all around them. His arm changed, Chad waited for their opponents to show themselves. They didn't need to wait long. The dog popped out of a hole. It opened its mouth and... Fired a baseball?

They wove around it. Mr. 4 appeared out of a hole behind them, a metal bat in hand. He swung and hit the ball back to them. As it sailed between them Chad became aware of the slight ticking sound coming from it. Acting fast he shoved Chopper to the ground.

"CHAD!" Chopper screamed as he was enveloped in a explosion.

"I'm fine." He let out a sigh of relief when the smoke cleared. Chad's shirt was slightly singed, but other than that he was relatively unharmed. Their relief was short lived when another ball flew at them. Like last time, when they dodged, Mr. 4 came up and hit it back to them. Now that they knew the balls were bombs, Chad and Chopper took extreme caution.

Dodging the next one they went on the offensive. They both swung at Mr. 4 but he disappeared back into the tunnels. This repeated for several minutes. They would avoide the projectile and attack only for them to miss at the last second. Getting tired of this Chad pulled his fist to his side and waited. He reached out with his senses, like he was trained to.

-FLASHBACK 4 YEARS AGO-

Chad and Ichigo stood on the deck of a ship. In front of them was Isshin.

"Ok boys for today's training, you're required to wear these." He handed each of them a blindfold. With confusion they put them on. "Now DODGE!" Isshin threw a punch at both of them. As expected they fails to do so and ended up lying flat on the ground. "AGAIN!"

A few minutes of getting beaten later, Ichigo had had enough and took of his blindfold. "What's this suppose to do?! Besides show that we suck at it!"

"Tell me, what are you going to do when you fight an enemy that you can't see?" The boys were quiet. They didn't have an answer. Isshin took Ichigo's blindfold and put it on. "Attack me." When they didn't he repeated himself. "I said ATTACK!"

When they did he effortlessly dodged, blocked and countered them. He took off the blindfold. "You can't always rely on sight alone. You have to reach out with your other senses." He scolded. "A friend of mine once fought a man that could take away your sight, hearing and smell. He won by use his sense of touch alone." He gave them their blindfolds back. "Now, lets go again."

-END FLASHBACK-

This was one of those times. Closing his eyes, Chad reached out with his senses. Listening closely he could hear them moving beneath them. The mole woman was digging more tunnels and Mr. 4 ran through them to his next position.

THERE!

Mr. 4 came up and hit another ball. Instead of dodging, Chad caught the ball. Its weight caught him off guard. It felt like he caught a cannonball, but he had carried heavier. He reared back and returned it to its sender. Mr. 4's head would've been taken clean off if not for Ms. Merry Christmas(Ms. MC) pulling him back under. The ball exploded harmlessly in the distance.

"WOW!" Chopper was amazed. He hadn't even seen the ball leave Chad's hand. Chad waited for them to attack again. A second later they did. He caught then next one as well and threw it back even faster then before, but they were on to him. It missed and the cycle repeated. No matter how fast he acted, they were faster. Even with Choppers help.

Chad was out of his element. He preferred a strait up fight not hit and run tactics like these two. He needed a new plan of attack.

"Chad below you!" Choppers warning came to late as Ms. MC grabbed Chads feet. 'Damn it, I let my guard down.' She started dragging him around, smashing him into various objects. Making a sharp turn she headed towards Mr. 4. Dazed, Chad could do nothing as Mr. 4s bat slammed into his skull. Ms. MC let go as it hit and he was sent flying back from the force of the swing.

"CHAD!" Chopper ran to his side.

"HAHAHA! He's done! There's no way he could...get up..." Ms. MC was shocked to see him get up. "THAT BAT WEIGHS 4 TONS! HOW CAN YOU GET UP FROM THAT?!"

Chad rubbed his neck, cracking it in the process. That hit hurt like hell. He would have to be more alert now. Even he couldn't survive anymore hits like that. Their opponents went back under. Chad and chopper went back to back.

"We won't last if this keeps up." Chad said. "They must have a weakness of some kind."

'Weakness... That's it!' Chopper pulled out a rumble ball and ate it. He shrunk down to his small form. He put his hooves together, aiming through them like a scope. "I'll find their weakness. You keep them busy."

Chad nodded and did just that. He dodged, caught and took hits that would've hit Chopper. He was starting to feel the fatigue from the battle. He wasn't sure how much longer he could last. 'Chopper hurry.'

Chopper stood still as a stone. His brain was analyzing every little detail about his opponent. 'Come on! Almost... GOT IT!'

"CHAD! The tunnels are connected! That's their weakness!" Chad wasn't sure how that would help, but when he thought about it he got an idea.

"CHOPPER GET BACK!" Chads arm was enveloped in a white/blue energy. He jumped into the air, arm cocked back. Once Chopper was at a safe distance he punched down. "EL DIRECTO!" The energy stored up in his arm was blasted at the ground where it entered one of the tunnels. The whole area was covered in an explosion.

Chad landed next Chopper, who was gapping like a goldfish. He had know idea that Chad had so much power. He looked over to see him panting slightly. "Do you think that got them?" His hopes were dashed away when the smoke cleared and revealed a very beaten but very much alive Mr.4 and Ms. MC.

"ENOUGH OF THIS!" She dove underground and grabbed Mr.4 by his feet. He got his bat ready as they charged. What they didn't know was that they made a huge mistake. In their anger they abandoned surprise attacks for a straight up fight. In other words...they done goofed.

Chads fist met Mr.4s bat. It held for a second before shattering. His fist kept going until it connected with Mr.4s head. was so shocked by what just happened, that she fails to realize that she was still holding on to his feet. They were both sent flying into the air until they disappeared over the horizon, their dog chasing after them.

"We did it!" Chopper exclaimed jumping up and down.

Chad patted him on the head. "Good job finding their weak spot."

"That doesn't make me happy or anything ya bastard." His happy expression and dance said otherwise. His dance was interrupted when a blast of energy dissipate harmlessly in the sky. Chad recognized it. 'That was Ichigo's attack!' He started moving but fell to a knee.

Chopper changed to his heavy point and helped him up. "Your hurt." The injuries he sustained throughout the fight had finally caught up to him. "Someone get a doctor!" Chopper seemed to have forgotten that that was him.

"Chopper...you're a doctor."

...

"aha, right..." Chopper pulled out his medical supplies and got to work.

-LINEBREAK 5 MINUTES EARLIER-

Kohza stayed silent as Vivi finished telling him everything that she had learned. How every little thing about this war had all been orchestrated by Crocodile from the very beginning. All this death and destruction, all over a lie. Kohza did what any man would do in his shoes...he fell to his knees and said

"I think I'm gonna be sick."

Ichigo patted him on the back sympathetically. "You couldn't have known."

"I SHOULD HAVE!" He took a deep, calming breath and continued shaky voice. "I knew the king. I knew deep down that he couldn't have done what he was accused of, yet I ignored my instincts. Because of that thousands of people paid the price."

"We can still stop them." Vivi said. "Now that you know the truth, we can end this pointless blood shed. All we need to do is let everyone know. These men follow you, they will listen."

Kohza looked to see Ichigo and Vivi both offering him a hand. Smiling slightly he nodded and took them. "You're right." He faced the battle that was going on below. "Let's end this."

"We might have a problem doing that." They turned to see Ichigo with both his blades drawn. His gaze was aimed at the other side of the roof they were on. He was glaring at the smirking figure of Crocodile And the ever calm Robin. Ichigo would've attacked but the beaten and tied Kobra prevented him from continuing his actions.

"I-Ichigo!" Kobra was surprised to see the son of his closest friend.

"Hey old man. Sorry but we'll have to catch up later." Ichigo shifted his gaze back to Crocodile.

"You seem surprised to see me. Don't tell me you thought that idiot could actually defeat me."

"Doesn't matter." Ichigo replied flatly. Crocodiles smile dropped. He was hoping to get a rise out of him. "I haven't known him for long, but i do know that Luffy's too stubborn to be killed by you. I'll just beat you here and now otherwise I'll have to give Luffy another shot at you."

"Ms. All Sunday, how much time do we have left?" Crocodile asked dismissing Ichigo's threat.

She checked her watch. "30 minutes."

"What happens in 30 minutes?" Ichigo felt a foreboding sense of dread when Crocodile smiled.

"A very powerful cannon, one designed to not allow anything for 5 kilometers to grow, will be fired here."

"ARE YOU INSANE?! What about all of the people here?! What have they ever done to you!" Cried Vivi while Ichigo hung his head.

"But before that happens, Mr. Kobra I want to know where the Pluton is."

"W-w-what do you know about that?!" Seeing Kobra's expression Ichigo got an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"The Pluton, a weapon so powerful it's said to be able to make whole islands disappear." Crocodile clenched his fist. "With that kind of power I'll take over and create my utopia." He threw his arms out. "Not even the world government would be able to lay a single scratch on me!"

"Even if that thing exists, I have know idea where it is." Kobra stated.

"That's why I need you to take me to the thing that contains the "True History"." Crocodile spoke calmly.

"You sure love to hear yourself talk." Ichigo said. He glanced at Vivi and Kohza. "You guys go stop the battle and save as many people as possible. I'll take care of this creep."

"But Ichigo!"

"Go, I'll be fine." Vivi grabbed his arm. Before Ichigo could ask what she was doing, she pressed her lips against his. He was so shocked he didn't even notice when she stopped kissing him, his face as red as a tomato.

"Just don't die." Ichigo could only nod.

"As sweet as this is, we need to go." Kohza, even in this situation, couldn't help but smirk when Ichigo was reduced to a stuttering mess.

"S-S-Shut up." It didn't help that Ichigo could hear Zangetsu wolf whistling in the back of his mind. Shaking his head Ichigo turned his attention back to Crocodile, who had an amused look on his face.

"You're quite confident. I already beat your captain, what makes you think you can defeat me?" Crocodile charged at the retreating forms of Vivi and Kohza, but Ichigo stepped into his path.

"One thing you should know by now..." He brought his larger sword back as it glowed with energy. "Is that I'm stronger then Luffy, Getsuga Tensho." Swinging his sword he released the energy. The cresent wave shot towards a surprised Crocodile. Snapping out of his shock he turned into sand avoiding the attack. He reformed near Robin.

"Have Mr. Kobra take you to the poneglyph. I'll catch up." Nodding, Robin took Kobra and left. Before he was taken away Kobra looked at Ichigo. His attention wasn't aimed at him, but his opponent. Seeing the look in his eyes Kobra knew Ichigo would be alright.

Ichigo glanced in their direction. He knew Kobra's energy signature so he'll be able to find him once he was done. But for some reason Ichigo felt that the woman holding him captive wouldn't harm him.

"Worried about the king?"

"No. I'm actually glad they left." Ichigo stated. "Now I don't need to worry about him getting caught in the crossfire!" He shot towards Crocodile kicking up sand in his wake. Crocodile raised his hand.

"Desert Blade!"

Ichigo weaves around the attack. He went for Crocodiles head wanting to finish this fight quickly but Crocodile blocks it with his hook. Flipping his smaller blade so it was held in reverse grip, Ichigo tried bisecting him up the middle.

Crocodile remembered what happened back at RainBase, so he quickly turns into sand. He reforms behind him and reaches for his head. Ichigo ducks and lashes out with a vicious up kick to the jaw. To his horror it goes right through. Grabbing the offending limb Crocodile smirks.

"I dont know why but those blades of yours are capable of hurting me, but it seems that's all I need to worry about." Ichigo slashed at the arm holding his leg. Crocodile growled as he was forced to let go of his leg before he could suck out any water from it. His eyes widened when he saw a familiar build up of energy.

"GETSUGA TENSHO!" Ichigo yelled. The force of the blast caused the building to collapse. Bushing a chunk off him Ichigo observed the damage. He couldn't see a body. 'Did that last attack finish him?'

~KINGY BEHIND YOU!~

Zangetsu's warning came to late. Crocodile bursted from a pile of debris behind him and grabs his left arm.

"AAAAHHHHHHHH!" Ichigo cried out as all the moisture was sucked from his arm.

"In the end you couldn't bea-!" Crocodile watched in complete shock as Ichigo cut his arm off before he could drain all the water from his body. His surprise turned into a chuckle which turned into full blown laughter. "Now i don't even need to kill you! You just killed yourself!" He was cut off by Ichigo grunting.

Ichigo glanced the bleeding stump of his left shoulder. Blood spurted out of the wound. It was replaced by something white growing out of it. It was a bone! Crocodile watched as the bone was covered by tendons, muscle, veins and finally skin. It was pale for a second but soon regains color.

Ichigo gave it a few test squeezes. Satisfied he reached out with his new hand. The smaller blade retched itself from the dismembered limb to his hand.

"What the hell are you!?"

"I'll let you know once I figure that out." Ichigo tried to play it cool, but he was noticeably breathing heavier. While his healing rate was insanely high it came at the price of tiring out. Small wounds like cuts didn't drain him much, broken bones more so but whole limbs left him seriously winded. This fight has to end soon or he won't last.

"You have some impressive powers I'll give you that, but you're just about done." Crocodile said seeing Ichigo's exhaustion.

"I've got enough fight left in me to kick your ass!" Ichigo shot back, but he was bluffing. He barely had the strength to stand. He would have to end this with his next attack. Bringing his swords to bare he got ready for another attack. He stopped when he sensed someone familiar approaching at fast speeds.

Crocodile took this chance to attack. "You lose." Crocodile's hook tore through Ichigo's stomach much like he did to Luffy a few hours prior. he removed his hand but Ichigo gripped it. He growled and tried pulling harder but the pressure didn't let up. In face it increased.

Ichigo smirked. "Got you." He placed his larger sword against Crocodiles chest. It started to glow to his enemies horror. "GETSUGA TENSHO!" They were both enveloped in the blast. The smoke cleared revealing a them. Crocodile was sprawled out on the ground, unconscious and smoldering, but alive. Ichigo stayed standing as his stomach stitched itself closed leaving a faint scar.

"ICHIGO!" He couldn't see who was calling him as he fell on his back. His Zangetsu's clamored to the ground. The last thing he saw was a large explosion in the sky before blissful unconsciousness to him.

-LINEBREAK-

Captain smoker sighed as he sat on the deck of a ship. A day had past sense crocodile and BW had been taken down. They fighting had stopped and the country was pulling itself back together. He let out another sight and took a long drag on his cigars.

"Tashigi welome back." He heard his fellow captain Hina greeted his sargent. Hina was a long time friend of his, going all the way back to their time at the academy. He would've been fired a long time ago if it wasn't for her.

"Miss Hina... Sorry I'm a little right now, so I'm going to go rest." Tashigi responded walking past her. "Captain Smoker, I'm back."

"Welcome back." He greeted. "I already know what happened with the Straw-hats." He saw Tashigi's dejected expression.

"I...I failed to bring them in. Instead I helped them and let them escaped. I deserve to be punished as a marine."

"Why? Didn't you think it was justice?" Questioned Smoker.

"No!" Tashigi shouted surprising those around them. "I did it because it was the only thing I could do. Sorry but I want to rest now." She walked bast with her head hung. Smoker could see tears going down her face.

"Instead of crying about it, HOW ABOUT YOU GET STRONGER!"

"I WILL!" She cried causing both Smoker and Hina to smile.

A transponder snail went off. A marine handed it to Smoker. It was for him. "This is Smoker."

*This is Marine's Base. In response to your capture of Crocodile the government officials will reward you and Tashigi with medals*

"Wait what?" Smoker scrunched his face in confusion. "I told you that it wasn't us."

*You will both also be promoted one rank*

Smoker was angry by this point. "Listen the ones that beat Crocodile and BW were the Straw-hats along with former Captain Kurosaki who has joined their crew!" Everyone froze hearing this. Captain Ichigo Kurosaki was well known among the marines. He's the only one to achieve that rank at such a young age. They all thought he would become an Admiral in time, had he and his Lieutenant not left for unknown reasons. "Now until that sinks in, tell those high rank bastards to go eat shit!" With that said he hung up.

"Why smoker!?" Hina asked.

"I won't take credit for something that me and my subordinate couldn't do. Otherwise she wouldn't be crying right now." Smoker sat back down. He didn't know why Kurosaki joined the Straw-Hats, but he sure as hell would find out.

-END-

Zrocker119: annnnnd done! Once again sorry for the late update. From now on I won't try to stick to a schedule cause they don't seem to work with me. Future chapters will be out when their out. Anyways the next chapter will wrap up the Alabasta arc. It won't be out for a while cause I'll be working on my other story for a bit. Until then fav/follow and review. Happy Memorial Day XD


	7. The time we have left

Zrocker119:did us miss me?... Of course not. Anyway if you read my other story, you'd know why I haven't worked on this one for a while. Authors note at the end.

"normal speech"

'thoughts'

~hollow~

-START-

Vivi sat in a chair beside a bed that an unconscious Ichigo laid in. She held his hand in hope that he would wake up soon. It had been two days since the fighting had ended. The marines had arrested Crocodile and the rest of BW. Nico Robin was still at large but Luffy said that they didn't need to worry about her.

While all of this was going on, Vivi remained by Ichigo. She hadn't slept at all since they found him. When they found him he was running a high fever and there was traces of scorpion venom in his system. Chopper quickly made a antidote for the poison and his wounds healed, but he still hasn't woken up. The crew had tried getting her to go sleep but she always told them no.

The door opened and in walked Chad.

"Anything?" Vivi shook her head.

"You seem so calm, has this ever happened before?"

"Yes...quite more then it should actually." Vivi let out a giggle.

"Hmhm that sounds like Ichigo, always over doing things."

"Wouldn't be him if he didn't." Chad went and stood by the window. Without looking at her he spoke. "You really should go get some sleep." Vivi went to argue but was interrupted when a pillow hit her face. She looked at it quizzically and felt a blanked on her shoulders. She looked up to see Chad giving her a small smile. "Never said you had to leave."

"Thank you." Vivi was out the second her head hit the pillow. Her hand never leaving Ichigo's.

-LINEBREAK-

Ichigo found himself surrounded by the fimiliar buildings of his inner world. His trusty sword Zangetsu stood towering over him and was giving him a pissed off glare.

~I swear you'll be the death of us both~

"What happened?"

~Well you were stabbed through the gut by a poisonous hook, used the lasts if your energy to fire a Getsuga, and lastly fell into a mini coma~ Zangetsu counted on his fingers as he listed everything that happened.

"I'M IN A COMA!"

Zangetsu hit him upside the head.

~Calm down. It's only until your energy reserves were full, which they now are.~

"Oh...thanks."

Zangetsu claps his shoulder.

~Don't mention it King. Now wake up, your queens been worried sick.~

"We're not like that!" Zangetsu just gave him that stare that read 'Uhuh bull shit'. "I-I mean she kissed me." Ichigo said stressing out the "she".

~Did you hate it?~

"No it was grea-HEY!" Ichigo was blushing up a storm at what he almost said.

~Thank goodness, for awhile I thought you were gay. Well use protection, see ya later Kingy!~ Before Ichigo could say something, Zangetsu sent him out of his inner world.

-LINEBREAK-

Ichigo opened his eyes and closed them instantly from the light. Blinking a few time he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, but he felt a weight on his hand. Looking he saw Vivi asleep in a chair next to his bed, her hand grasped firmly around his.

Turning to the foot of the bed, Ichigo blinked owlishly and screamed. Luffy sat on his bed, his face not a foot from his own. Luffy didn't have time to react before a he was sent flying from the room by Ichigo's fist. The commotion woke Vivi.

Vivi woke to the very strange scene of Ichigo punching Luffy from the room. She rubbed her eyes to make sure they weren't playing tricks on her. They weren't and tears gathered in her eyes.

"You're awake." Ichigo looked at her with a small smile. Whatever moment the two were about to have, was ruined by Luffy charging back into the room and started strangling Ichigo.

"What was that for?!" Their roles were switch when Ichigo started choking Luffy.

"What were you doing in my face?!" They tackled each other to the floor and began rolling around.

The rest of the crew came running in. They sweat dropped at the scene in front of them. Ichigo had Luffy pinned to the ground and in a head lock. Nami punched them both in the head.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING?!" Nami's eyes turned white, her teeth became razor sharp and a wall of fire seemed to appear behind her.

"HE STARTED IT!" They shouted at each other.

Vivi couldn't hold it in any longer and bursted out in a fit of laughter. She was joined a second later by everyone else, although Chad only snickered cause he doesn't really laugh.

"It's about time you woke up." Zoro said getting himself under control.

Ichigo scratched his head sheepishly. "Yeah sorry. I would've woke sooner but Zangetsu kept me under. Said he wanted me to regain all my energy. I'm fine now though."

"Good. I would've been pissed if you died a few days after showing up." Nami said glaring at him. Ichigo just smirked.

"Sorry but you're not going to get rid of me that easily little sister."

Nami's looked turned into one of concern. "How do you feel?" She got her answer when his stomach released a loud growl. Ichigo blushed from embarrassment. "Come on breakfast is about to start." At the mention of food everyone left. The only ones in the room were Ichigo, Chad and Vivi.

"Hey Chad, can you give us a minute?" Ichigo asked. With a nod Chad left to go join the others. Now they were alone.

"You scared us when you wouldn't wake."

"I know." An awkward silence took over.

"I'm sorry about what happened before. What I did before you fought Crocodile." Vivi said not being able to meet his gaze. She was caught up in the moment and just kissed him. She kissed her best friend. Ichigo's eyes softened and put his hand on top of hers.

"...Vivi I-I feel the same." She looked at him wide eyed. "It only took Zangetsu's endless teasing and you kissing me to realize it."

~Damn straight! I couldn't believe how dense you are.~

'Shut up!'

"R-Really?" Tears threatened to spill when he nodded. Ichigo leaned in and Vivi did as well. Their lips met in a passionate kiss. Feeling bold, Ichigo probed her lips with his tounge asking for enterance. Vivi was surprised but parted her lips none the less. Their tounges explored each other mouths then intertwined . Eventually the parted to breath.

'Wow.' They both thought.

"Ahem."

Jumping at the voice, they both turned to see who it was. Standing in the door way was Kobra and Kohza. Both sporting shit eating grins.

"Ichigo you lucky bastard."

"Isshin my old friend...WE'RE GONNA HAVE GRAND BABIES!" Kobra shouted to the heavens, hoping that his deceased friend could hear him. They were both sent flying by a blushing Ichigo and Vivi.

-LINEBREAK-

After a well deserved meal everyone went to the bathroom for a relaxing bath.

"That hits the spot." Ichigo said as he lowers himself into the hot water. The rest of the male crew members did the same, each with a towel around their waists. He looked down at his stomach, where his new scar was. Crocodile's hook had done more damage then he thought. Instant regeneration can do wonders but it could only go so far. Pushing those thoughts aside, he instead thought about Vivi. As much as he wanted to stay he knew that he couldn't. The crew would be moving on soon and him and Chad with them.

He looked over at the wall dividing the male and female baths. His eyebrow twitch when he saw all the guys but, Chad and Chopper, trying to peek over into the girls bath. Getting up Ichigo cracked his nuckles. Not on his watch.

-With Vivi and Nami-

"Did you hear something?" Vivi asked. She swore that she heard the guys yelping.

"Probably just the guys trying to get a peek." Nami said like it was normal.

"I almost feel sorry for them, Ichigo hates perverts." They giggled as they heard the guys begging for mercy, too bad they would receive none. They fell into a comfortable silence.

"So you and Ichigo." Vivi blushed knowing that Nami wasn't asking a question. She was stating a fact.

"Yeah, you don't mind do you? He's your brother after all." Vivi asked poking her fingers.

"Why would I? I didn't even know he existed until a few days ago. You on the other hand, have known him your whole life." Nami's eyes turned into beli signs. "Besides if you two got married, I'd be a princess."

Vivi couldn't stifle a laugh. "Easy Nami, we just got together."

"Well you better enjoy yourselves while it lasts. We were thinking of leaving tonight."

"Tonight?!"

Nami smiled sadly. "We're pirates Vivi, we can't stay forever. The marines will eventually get in here. We need to go before then. You are already committing a serious crime by harboring us. Your royalty can't protect you from that." She put a hand on Vivi's shoulder. "Make it count."

-LINEBREAK-

Walking down the halls was Ichigo. He just found out that they would be leaving a few hours after the sun went down. Under the cover of night they would head to the ship and escape. Before then he wanted to take one last stroll through the halls where he most of his childhood.

Coming to a door, Ichigo opened it and walked inside. It was his old bedroom. Grabbing a picture off of the shelf he sat on the bed, a small nostalgic smile found its way into his face. It was a picture taken the day he left with his dad. Him, Vivi and Kohza stood in front of their parents. Isshin and Kobra were giving them both bunny ears and had goofy grins plastered on their faces.

He was brought out of the memory by someone knocking at the door. Woundering who it was, Ichigo opened it to find Vivi standing there wearing a robe.

"I figured you'd be in here. May I come in?" Stepping aside, Ichigo let her in and closed the door. She sat on the bed. She picked up the discarded picture. "I remember this. We took this the day you left. Things sure have changed."

"Well the more things change, the more they stay the same...at least I think that's how the saying goes." Ichigo said sitting next to her. "You know I'll be back."

"I just wish that you were all staying longer. I know your pirates, but your also my friends." She cried. Ichigo pulled her into his arms. He started rubbing her shoulder. "I don't know if I want to stay or go with you."

Ichigo was torn as well, not about going with the Straw-hats, he knew that he'd go with them no matter what, but about whether Vivi should come with as well. Would he be selfish for wanting her with him? He didn't know the answer.

"We just have to make the best out of the time we have left." He finally said.

-LEMON START-

"You're right." Vivi stood up, facing him and began taking off her robe. Letting it pool at her feet, she was left in nothing but a lacy, dark purple bra and matching panties.

"W-What are you d-d-doing?!" Ichigo blushed but didn't turn away. Not even when she sat in his lap, straddling his waist. She was blushing as well.

"I want you Ichigo and I know you want me." As if to prove her statement, Vivi felt a certain part of him becoming hard. "There's no one else I'd want to do this with." Suddenly Ichigo was on his back. Ichigo didn't resist as her tounge invaded his mouth, covering every inch. He replied in kind, running his hands along her smooth thighs. She moaned from the sensation.

Ichigo let out a groan as she pulled back. That was until she unclasped her bra, setting free her large, perky breasts. Sitting up, Ichigo's lips latched onto her right nipple, while he massaged her left one. Flicking the pink nub with this tounge, he started sucking on it like a newborn.

Vivi bit her lip to keep herself from crying out from the pleasure. Never did she imagine that doing this would feel so good. She pulled his head further into her chest, urging him to continue. Ichigo's hand left her breast. Traveling down he stopped at her now wet panties. Moving the article of clothing aside, he rubbed her moist lips and inserted a finger. Vivi failed to keep quite as she came.

Picking her up, Ichigo laid her on her back and took off his clothes. Clad in nothing, Vivi gulped at His large package. Would that even fit in her. He positioned himself over her. Once again Ichigo was on his back, Vivi hovering over his cock.

Kissing him deeply Vivi lowers herself until she felt him stop at her hymen. She pulled up a little then dropped back down tearing her barrier. Ichigo kissed away her tears. After a minute Vivi adjusted to his size and slowly began to move. The pain slowly ebbed away and was replaced with pleasure.

Vivi threw her head back and moaned loudly as she moved faster, causing her breasts to bounce up and down. Ichigo was mesmerized by the enchanting sight before him. Grabbing her breasts he felt their weight, squeezed and massaged them, adding to her pleasure.

The sounds of their skin smacking echoed throughout the room. All thoughts of keeping quiet were thrown out. They no longer cared if someone heard them.

"Ichigo, I'm gonna cum."

"Me too." Ichigo sat up and bounced her on his lap. His hands on her waist and her arms around his neck. They kissed passionately, their tounges battling for dominance.

"Vivi/Ichigo!" They shouted as they both came.

-LEMON END-

Collapsing onto the bed they laid there, both panting and sweaty. They held each other close, not wanting to seperate. They stayed like this for an hour before getting dressed. Holding hands they made there way back to the crew. Ichigo was completely unaware of Zangetsu crying.

~Way to go Kingy!*hic* WAY TO GO!~

-LINEBREAK-

Vivi put down the transponder snail, finished with her speech. The Straw-hats sailing away on their ship. Ichigo along with them. Before they were too far away, summoning up her courage, Vivi shouted at the top of her lungs.

"I LOVE YOU ICHIGO KUROSAKI!" Next thing she knew, Ichigo appeared in front of her. Holding her waist he kisses her.

"I love you to, Vivi Nefertari." Ichigo said resting his forehead on hers.

"Quack."

Ichigo laughs and pats Karoo's head. "Same with you Karoo." He dropped to a knee and looked into the ducks eyes. "Listen, I need you to protect Vivi while I'm gone. Like you always have."

"Quack." Karoo salutes Ichigo with his wing. Patting him again, Ichigo stands back up.

"COME ON ICHIGO! KISS HER ALREADY AND LETS GO!" Nami yells at him making him blush.

"I-I got a-" Vivi shuts him up with a kiss.

"I'll be here waiting for you. Now go and have your adventure." Vivi made a shooing gesture. Kissing her one more time, Ichigo reappeared on the deck of the Merry. He blushed when he noticed everyone looking at him. Zoro grumbled something under his breath and pasted some beli to Nami.

"Thank you."

"Evil witch."

Ichigo looked at them horrified, while Zangetu laughed his ass off. It wasn't before Alabasta was long gone and things were back to normal on the Going Merry. Luffy sat at his favorite spot on the ships head, Usopp was tinkering with his tools, Sanji was fawning over Nami who was checking their course, Zoro was working out, Chad was at the wheel and Chopper worked on his medicines.

Ichigo say in a medatative position, his swords crossed in his lap. He was sparing with Zangetsu, when he felt something strange. "Hey Nami, there's only nine of us right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Then who's inside of the ship right now?" As Ichigo finished speaking the door to the crew's quarters opened and Nico Robin calmly walked out. She was no longer wearing her cowgirl outfit, but a pink button up shirt and grey pants.

"I see we're finally moving." She said smiling. Zoro and Nami drew their weapons, Sanji immediately fell head over heels for her, Chopper and Usopp hod, while Ichigo, Chad and Luffy remained calm. Luffy was actually smiling back at her.

"You made it."

"I did, Captian-san." Everyone blinked in confusion.

"Huh?"

Over the course of several minutes, Luffy explained how when he went to rescue Kobra from Robin, that she gave him up with out a fight. From there Robin took over and told them that from the very beginning that she was after the information stored on the poneglyph in Alabasta. When it didn't contain what she needed, she was ready to give up and die. Luffy stopped her, and seeing that she wasn't really a bad person, offered her a spot on their crew.

Sanji literally spun where he stood, glad that there was another beautiful woman on board. Usopp still thought she was to dangerous, at least that was until he saw Luffy with a pair of hands sprouting from his head and started acting like Chopper. Nami was easily swayed by the beli that Robin brought with her. Only Zoro remained suspicious.

"Are they always this cheerful?" Robin asked watching the crew.

"All the time." Zoro glared at her out of the corner of his eye. He didn't know what she was planning but he'd find out.

Robin turned her gaze to Ichigo. Feeling her eyes on him, Ichigo cracked his eye to see her starring at him. "Can I help you?"

"You and Sado-kun are the only ones that didn't seem suspicious of me. I can't help but wonder why."

"The same reason that I went with you back at Rainbase. I feel no harmful intent from you." Robin smile turned into a look of confusion. "When ever I fight someone its like I connect with their soul. When I felt your's, I could tell you ment us no harm...well not directly of course, and I just don't see you being a bad person." Ichigo said with a shrug.

Robins smile returned. "You really are your fathers son, Strawberry-kun." Ichigo blinked.

"Huh?" She laughed at his confused expression.

"When I was 10, I was running from a group of pirates. They had been chasing me for 5 hours when, in a moment of confusion, I ran into a marine captain. It was your father. He knew who I was. When the pirates showed up, he defeated them all. I thought it was the end, that I would spend the rest of my life behind bars. Imagin my surprise when he asked me if I was injured."

-FLASHBACK 18 YEARS AGO-

After dealing with the pirates, Isshin turned to the little girl he saved. He knew who this was. Nico Robin, the child worth 79 million beli. As he approached her she tried to run away, only for him to appear in front of her. Reaching for her, he stopped when she flinched.

Isshin's eyes flushed with rage. This wasn't a criminal, this was a frightened 10 year old girl! He put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you hurt?" She looked at him in shock and confusion before fainting from exhaustion. Isshin caught her before she hit the ground.

He sighed and smiled. "Looks like Masaki and I are having a guest tonight."

-END FLASHBACK-

"I woke up in his house an hour later. When I asked why I wasn't in prison, he said that there was no reason for me to be. Him and your mother let me stay for the night and helped me escape the next morning with the help of their friends."

"Yeah that sounds like old goat face." Isshin had a different sense of justice then most marines and often got into trouble because of it. That was the main reason that he never became an admiral. Ichigo was proud to be his son.

Reaching into his shirt, Ichigo pulled out a chain. Hanging from it were an assortment of items. There are 2 rings, a cross of some sorts and lastly a pair of hair clips. Clutching it tightly he stood.

"Ichigo." Chad said.

"Let's get the crew together. It's time I tell them what happened."

-END-

Zrocker119: SO SORRY for the long wait. I'm out of school for the summer, but I won't be able to update very much until after the 4th of July. After that I'll be posting like crazy. Until then I'll be writing as much as I can when I'm not working.


	8. The pain of the past

Zrocker119: Hey everybody. Gonna keep this one short. I'm going to reveal some of Ichigo's back story but not all of it. All I'm revealing this chapter is how he lost his crew, not his training or anything because we'd be here for a while. If you haven't figured it out by now, Orihime and Ishida were a part of his crew. This will be a pretty dark chapter ye be warned, now Lets get to it.

"normal speech"

'thoughts'

~hollow~

-START-

It was evening when the whole crew met in the dining area for dinner. Everyone but Ichigo had dug in, he hadn't even touched his. He was so deep in thought that he hadn't even noticed that Nami was looking at him concerned.

"Everything ok Ichigo?"

He snapped out of his thoughts. Looking at her he sighed. "Remember how you guys asked about my old crew?" She nodded, remembering that he avoided the subject at the time. "I've been giving it some thought, and decided that you all deserve to know what happened to them." At this point the whole crew was listening.

"Because of my young age, those above me felt that handling a full sized crew would be too difficult. So instead of giving me a full blown crew, they let me create my own squad. There were four of us total, but each of us possessed unique skills, and much like Chad the other two developed powers as well. I still didn't have full control of my powers at the time." Ichigo admitted scratching his head sheepishly.

"What could they do?" Zoro asked interested having seen the power that Chad possessed.

"Orihime could...well...the only way I can describe it is that she could reject things." Ichigo couldn't think of any other way of saying it. "Be it an attack, wound or enemy."

"What do you mean by reject?" asked Nami thoroughly confused.

"Well she could stop any attack that was thrown at her if she consentrated hard enough. She could cut an enemy in half, but she was mostly a pacifist so she didn't use that one much. Lastly she could completely heal any wound by rejecting the event that put it in that condition. Chad lost his arm one time and Orihime fixed it right up." He jerked his thumb at Chad who just nodded.

"Sugoi!" Luffy couldn't help but say.

'What could even do that to him?' Nami wondered having seen some of Chads power first hand.

"Ishida was our marksman but he used only a bow and arrow. His power let him create a bow made of energy and let him shoot energy arrows." His was pretty self expanatory. Simple and easy to remember. "If I remember correctly, Ishida could fire up to...1200 arrows at once." The crews jaws dropped. That was an insanely high number!

Nami noticed his saddend expression. "What happened to them?"

Ichigo's look of sadness quickly turned into one of anger. His next words held nothing but pure, unadulterated rage. "The Fucking World Nobles happened."

-2 YEARS AGO-

"Pulling the sails! We're here!" Ichigo yelled to his crew as they pulled into Sabaody Archipelago. After completing their last mission they were ordered here to help control the overwhelming amout of pirates coming in.

"Aye aye captain!" Orihime responded. Orihine Inoue is a beautiful young woman with long, waist length, burn orange hair that is held back by two hair pins. Her curvaceous figure, her most noticable trait being her very large breasts, is covered by a marine uniform. She's a kind girl with a bubbly personality that tends to get carried away with her over-active imagination. What Ichigo doesn't know is that she has a crush on him, but knows that he doesn't see her as anything other than a sister and is fine with that.

His other crew member let out an undignified snort. Uryuu Ishida is a young man of average height with chin length raven colored hair, his bangs being brushed to the right. Like Orihime he too wore a marine uniform, although he insisted on wearing a short cape that stopped at his shoulder blades. Around his right wrist hangs a sstrange looking cross. Him and Ichigo have a rivalry going on between them, but are still really close friends.

"What was that marine?" Ichigo joked.

Ishida just smirked and jumped from his spot in the crows nest. Most people would've broken a leg or possibly died from such a fall, but he just landed calmly without a sound. "Nothing at all captain."

Chad just shook his head at them. Chad to can also be seen wearing marine clothes. The only marine clothing that Ichigo wore is his captains coat over his normal clothes. Carefully the gentle giant guided the boat into the dock. Being much smaller due to the size of their crew it was quite easy. Once they were tied down they jumped off onto the dock. They weren't on it for more than 5 seconds when they heard.

"HELLO IIICHIIIGOOOO!" Ichigo was sent crashing through their boat and out the other side from a kick to his head. He skidded across the water a good distance bofore sinking beneath the waves. Their ship followed after him shortly. Chad and Ishida sweatdrop while Orihime giggled at Isshin's antics. "You let your guard down again my son. how do you expect to become a better mari-!"

A now soaking wet Ichigo cut him off with a roundhouse kick to the jaw. He then stomped on Isshin's head. "WHAT KIND OF FATHER SNEAK ATTACKS HIS OWN SON?!"

"I've taught you well." Isshin groaned in response. Grumbling Ichigo let him up. Isshin shot to his feet smiling, acting like he wasn't just dropped to the ground. "How's my favorite crew doing?"

Ichigo just face palmed but smiled none the less. He had excepted the fact that his father had a few screws loose long ago. "We're doing fine dad. We just got called here as back up to help with the pirate problem here." Isshin nodded sagely.

"Alright, I know you can all handle yourselves but be careful." Reaching into his coat Isshin pulls out a transponder snail and hands it to Ichigo. "Call me if you need help with anything."

"Don't you have your own crew to look after?" Isshin paled slightly. bidding them goodbye he left with haste. "huh," Ichigo sighed, "I swear he's nothing but a child in a mans body.

"I like you father, he's nice." Orihime added. Ichigo just patted her head enticing a purr from her. It honestly scares him how his crew got along with his crazed father so well.

The next several days went smoothly for the rag tag group of marines. Everything changed though when the world nobles decided to take a stroll through the island.

It was their day of and Orihime decided to go out for the day, dragging Ichigo along with her. She was wearing a yellow sundress while ichigo wore jeans, a grey shirt and a jacket. His Zangetsus were nowhere to be seen, but he can summon them to his hands with just a thought. While Orihime enjoys herself with the variety of shops, Ichigo kept himself entertained by scaring off the men that tried to make a pass for her. One look from Ichigo was enough to send them packing.

He just finished scaring off another one when the transponder snail his dad had given him started to ring. "Hey dad."

"Ichigo where are you?" His father asked frantically.

"Out with Orihime shopping."

"What grove?"

Ichigo checked. "47."

"Shit, Ichigo you two need to get out of there now!"

"What? Why? Dad what's going on?" Ichigo was getting nervous at his fathers panicking tone.

"A Celestial Dragon is walking through there! YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF THERE NOW!" Ichigo was already making his way to Orihime. He knew how much trouble the world nobles brought with them.

"We need to leave now." Ichigo said grabbing her arm and pulling her through the crowd.

"Ichigo?" Orihime saw the panic sticken look on his face. In the two years she had known him she had never seen him panic. What ever had Ichigo running scared must be serious. She looked around confused when people moved to the side of the street and dropped to there hands and knees bowing. Ichigo quickly mimiced everyone else, pulling her doen to do the same. "Ichigo what's going on?"

"What ever you do don't look up." He whispered to her. Now she was scared as well. She became aware of what sounded like chains moving closer with each passing second. Despite Ichigo's worning she glanced up. What she saw horrified her. An obese man wearing a strange suit of some kind and a bubble around his head, was riding on the back of another person.

The man wore rags for clothes and had chains on his hands and feet. Around his neck was a colar. walking next to him were to other people, a man and woman, each wearing the same things. The one carrying the man stopped to catch his breath.

Not having any of that the man on top of him hit his head. "Did I tell you to stop?!" Reluctantly the man resumed crawling. "These commoners are so pathetic. It is because of my ancesters that they can even breath this air." Saint Jones(made up character) said as he observed the people around him. He should've brought his cousins along with. At least he would've had someone to talk to while he went for his walk.

He was about to move on when something caught his eye. Two people that were kneeling stood out from the others. Both sported a shade of orange hair, but the girl had his attention. He could already imagine the things that he could have her do to him with those lushes curves. Dismounting his slave, much to said slaves relief, he approached her.

"You there stand up." Jones ordered her.

Orihime was scared. She looked over at Ichigo to se him staring back at her, a pleading look in his eyes. Nodding ever so slightly she didn't get up.

Jones was begining to loosing his patients. "Girl with the orange hair stand up!" Still she remained on the ground. He had enough at this point. "Get up now!" Sill she refused to do as he said. He reared his hand back to hit her when the orange haired man next to her stood and bowed.

"Please forgive my sister. She suffered a serious head injury when she was younger-"

BANG!

Ichigo's head snapped back as a bullet impacted against his forehead and he fell to the ground.

"ICHIGO!" Orihime shouted.

"Did I give you permission to stand?" Jones asked coldly then turned his gaze to Orihime. "And you are coming with me. I've goten bored with my current wife and want a new one." He gaze dropped to her bountiful chest. A hand broke through his air bubble and lifted him up by his throat. He was suddenly staringinto the menacing gaze of Zangetsu.

~You done fucked with Kingy and I can't just let that go unpunished.~

Jones was throne through the air until he crashed into a nearby building. Ichigo quickly took control and turned to Orihime with a terrified expression.

"We need to go!"

-LINEBREAK-

"HOW COULD YOU DO THAT?!" Ichigo scrunched his face as Isshin shouted at him. "Do you know what you've done?!"

"Yeah I do, that's why I came to you." Ichigo had called his father the moment they got out of the cove. Isshin ordered him to gather his crew and meet him at a place called Shakky's Rip-off Bar. Ichigo and company all sat in the bar while Isshin called down a bit.

"Your son is either brave or stupid for attacking a world noble." Shakky said while smoking a cigarette.

"He's both." Isshin and Ishida said at the same time. Despite the situation Orihime couldn't help but giggle.

"So what are we going to do?" Ichigo asked. He knew the noble didn't die from that throw. It was only a matter of time before he was made a criminal and had an admiral after him.

"The only thing you can do. You need to take your ship and get out of here as fast as you can."

"You sank it remember." Chad deadpanned.

"I got you guys a new one." Isshin stood up and headed for the door. "Shakky, can you call him and have him meet me at grove 53."

"I already did Isshin."

"Thank you. Now you four have to lay low for 3 days. After that I need you to head to Fishman Island. A friend of mine lives there and he'll take care of the rest." With that said he left.

-LINEBREAK-

Isshin had just finished his meeting with Rayleigh a little while ago and dropped into his chair in his office. Grabbing the picture on his desk he looked at the picture. It was of him, his leutnant, Ichigo and his crew. He removed the picture from the frame and took out another one that was hidden behind it. It was of him and Masaki holding a newborn Ichigo and his twin sister Nami. After loosing her, Isshin almost broke that day. If it wasn't for the help of his leutnant, Ichigo wouldn't have turned out the way he did.

"Isshin!" Speek of the devil and he shall appear. His office door was throne open and in walked a very beautiful woman.

She has long, wavy blonde hair, full lips, and a beauty mark located under the right side of her mouth. She wears a standered marine uniform that does nothing to hide her amazing figure. She leaves enough of the shirt open to reveal a large amount of cleavage, and has a pink scark draped over her shoulders. She had also eaten the ash-ash fruit, making her and ash woman.

"Hey Rangiku, how's Gin doing?" Isshin began.

"What happened with Ichigo?!" Straight to the point it seems.

Isshin sighed. "What did you hear?"

"That he attack a noble without reason." Rangiku said not believing a word of it. She help raise the boy in question, her and Gin considered him the son that they never had. She didn't believe for a second that Ichigo didn't do this without a good reason.

"The noble tried taking Orihime." Isshin said making her sigh. "Ichigo got shot, his zanpakuto took over and things escalated from there."

"What are we going to do?" From what she heard, an admiral was already on the way and she had an idea of who they were sending.

-LINEBREAK-

3 days later Ichigo and company made their way quietly through the groves. Marines were everywhere, every single one was out looking for them. Being as careful as possible, they eventually made their way to grove 53. Isshin could be seen waiting for them by their new ship that seemed to be cover in some kind of gloss.

"Ready to go." He received nodds from all of them. "Good, I'll accompany you to-" The ship exploded and the group found themselves surrounded by marines from all sided. One stood out from the rest. He was tall and very muscular and wore a red suit with a pink rose on the the left side.

"Ichigo Kurosaki, for the assault of a world noble you are sentenced to death." Sakazuki or better known by his alias Akainu declared. "And for helping a wanted fugitive, your crew and father Isshin Kurosaki are sentenced to death as well."

The group went back to back and got ready for a fight. Isshin and Ichigo drew their weapons, Chad changed his arm, Ishida summons his bow and Orihime's pins glowed. "Okay new plan," Ichigo said, "We hijack a ship and get the hell out of here!"

Seeing that they weren't going to surrender peacefully Akainu gave the order.

"Fire!"

A hail of gun and cannon fire was unleashed apon them. They were quickly surrounded by an orange barrier that blocked all the incomming fire. Isshin took charge.

"Orihime the moment they stop to reload drop the shield. Ishida once she does I want you to give us covering fire as we make are way to the other boats. We'll make are escape from there and figure out what to do next." Recieving nods They waited. The fire stopped and they moved. Ishida unleashed a hail of arrows forcing the marines into cover. Even Akainu took cover. He had read the reports about Kurosaki and his team. Each of them is capable of harming logia devil fruit users, so he wasn't taking any chances.

As the group moved, the resistance became heavier. Ichigo was blocking bullets left and right twiring his created a smaller shield protecting their backs. Bullets and cannon balls bounced harmlessly off of it. Their formation was broken by a giant fist made of magma.

"ChAD!" Orihime cried as her friend took a direct hit.

"Get him out of here! We'll hold them off!" Isshin and Ishida didn't wait for an answer as they attacked Akainu.

Ichigo wrapped his arms around Chad and Orihime before taking off with a burst of speed. After moving through several groves Ichigo stopped. Setting them down him and Orihime addressed Chads wounds. His chest was covered with serious burns and his right arm is completely gone.

"Orihime!"

"I'm on it!" Chad was covered by a dome of light and his wounds started to close and his arm began to reform. Hearing a group of marines moving closer Ichigo cursed. "Go I'll take care of Chad." Nodding Ichigo drew his blades and left. "Please be careful."

-Isshin &amp; Ishida-

Isshin fought Akainu directly while Ishida took on the seemingly endless amount of marines. Ishida danced around bullets and swords alike with percise and graceful steps. Leaping in the air he notched back an arrow. "Licht Regen!" 1200 arrows made of energy rained down on the marines, making them scatter and run for cover.

"Wow, that's quite a lot of power you have therrrre." Ishida spun around and started to sweat. Standing 20ft away...was admiral Kizaru.

'THEY SENT TWO ADMIRALS!" Ishida screamed to himself. Isshin was the only one here that could fight them head on by himself. If he wanted to stand a chance he would need Ichigo's help. He took of in Ichigo's direction. He hadn't counted on Kizaru to appear directly in his intended path.

"Don't leave just yet. I'm quite board at the moment." His finger glowed yellow and pointed at him. Ishida only felt pain.

-Back with Ichigo-

Ichigo had finished off the last of the marines in the immediate area. Just as he began to make his way back to Orihime, the area in front of him exploded in a cloud of smoke. Back flipping out of it was Ishida looking worse for wear. His left arm was smoking and hung loosely at his side.

"Ishida!"

"Ichigo look out!" Thanks to his warning Ichigo leapt out of the way, avoiding the beam of light that impacted where he previously stood. He looked in the direction it came from and saw Kizaru walking towards them. He felt sweat trickling down his neck.

"Can you fight with your arm like that?" Ichigo asked bringing his swords to bear. Ishida just snorted and grabbed one of the handles hanging from his belt. Feeding some energy into it, a blue blade sprung from it. Unseen to everybody else he created strings of energy and connected them to his limp arm. Just like a puppeteer hen now had full use of his arm.

He resummoned his bow and notched his new arrow. "We'll use 'that' tactic, any objections?"

"None at all." Ichigo charged Kizaru with a fury of blows. Kizaru danced around the strikes with ease. Getting board he lashed out with a kick. Ichigo ducked at the last second and watched as the force behind it decimated a house.

"That wasn't even a light speed kick, yet you barely managed to dodge it. Your pretty slow Kurosaki." Kizaru said mockingly.

Gritting his teeth Ichigo pumped energy into his larger blade. "GETSUGA TENSHO!" Kizaru didn't even try to avoid the attack as his hand glowed yellow and blocked the attack.

"AWWWWWWW!" Ichigo yelled pouring more power into the getsuga. Kizaru's eyes widened slightly in surprise when he felt himself slowly getting pushed back. Putting a little more effort, Kizaru started walking closer to Ichigo.

"EL DIRECTO!" Another blast of energy was added to Ichigo's when Chad joined the battle. Kizaru found himself being bushed back once again. Eventually the two ran out of energy and let up their attack. Kizaru's slightly singed hand was his only wound.

"Is that all? Too baaad." He tried taking a step forward but fount that he couldn't. He looked down to see a blue pentegon below him. Glancing around he notice that 5 of those strange arrows were planted in the ground at the points of the pentagon.

"Sorry," Ishida said, "but while you were distracted set this up to keep you from moving." Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out a small cylinder. "This is going to hurt a lot...Sprenger." He flicked the cyilinder. It bounced of the handles of the arrows and a blue liquid was released and splashed on the handle. Kizaru saw the pentagon glow brighter before he was enveloped in an explosion.

Orihime ran and stood by the three of them. "Is everyone okay?"

"Well besides my arm we're all reletively unhar-!" Ishida stopped feeling a piercing feeling in his chest. A beam of light shot through his heart and exploded off in the distance. He was dead while he fell.

"ISHIDA!" Ichigo caught him as he fell. "Orihime heal him!" Ichigo and Chad were sent flying from light speed kicks. Orihime turned around to see the imposing figure of Kizaru.

"Sorry but I can't have you healing them." The next thing she knew a sword made of light was rammed threw her chest. Kizaru pulled it out letting her lifeless body fall to the ground.

Ichigo tried standing but fell. "Orihime." He mannaged to say, slowly crawling to her. After what felt like an eternity he made itto her side. "Orihime say something." He tried shaking her but got no response. "Come on, there's no time to kid around, Get up!" All he received was her empty eyes staring into his.

"Orihime."

...

"Orihime!"

...

"ORIHIME!"

She was dead.

...

DEAD.

"RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!"

Kizaru was blown when a colum of black energy surrounded Ichigo. For a split second, Kizaru saw what looked like a demonic skull with glowing red eyes grinning at him. When the energy cleared Kizaru was shocked by what stood in front of him. It looked like a demon straight out of hell.

Its skin was pale white, its hands and feet had sharp looking black claws, tuffs of red fur could be seen on its wrist, ankles and around its collar bone going to its back and orange hair that is waist-length. The most disturbing feature about it was that its head was covered by a demonic skull that had a pair of horn sprouting from the sides of its head that pointed forwards, and the gaping hole in its chest, where six black lines erupted from, four going around its shoulders and the others going up its neck and mask. Its only article of clothing was a shredded up black hakama.

"My my, now what are you?"

The demon in front of him opened its mouth and let out a bone chilling roar.

"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

"Oh, so scary." Kizaru said pionting at the creature with a glowing finger. He figured it was Kurosaki somehow, but he was being cautious. This thing had power, he could feel it. He fired. The demonic Ichigo opens his hand and a sword appeared in it. It was a longer than normal black katana with a curve and three spikes on the back of the blade and a hollowed out portion in the center of the blade(Ichigo's full bringer bankai with a hollow spot). Raising his new sword at the last second he cut the attack in half before disappearing from view.

Kizaru brought up his own sword and blocked a slash at his chest. He was pushed back from the force of the blow. The demon didn't give him time to recover as he attack again and again, gaining the upper hand. Kizaru regained his footing and the two exchanged attack. For what felt like hours they continued this until Kizaru had had enough.

He landed a light speed kick to its side, sending it crashing through several buildings. The demon managed to right itself and stood in mid air, looking for its prey. He didn't wait long as Kizaru appeared above him poised for an axe kick.

Wanting none of that he caught the offending limb in his clawed hand. Spinning he threw Kizaru into the ground. A ball of red energy formed between its horns. Once it was at an acceptable size he fired a beam from it at the spot Kizaru crashed, destroying the area.

Thinking its foe was destroyed, the demonic Ichigo let out a roar.

"GYAAAHHHH!"

He failed to notice Kizaru jump behind him. Kizaru slashed at its head, but missed and only got one of the horns. Time seemed to stop as the mask was shattered along with the white skin covering Ichigo. The material swirld in the air before shooting into the hole in his chest, filling it. Ichigo fell to the ground unconscious. His sword glowed before separating into his two normal blades and laid at his sides.

Seeing that he was still breathing, Kizaru brought up his sword to finish the job. He was stopped by Isshin drop kicking him through some buildings. Grabbing a hold of Ichigo and Chad he got out of there.

-LINEBREAK-

Ichigo woke up feeling nothing but pain. He sat up when he remembered what had happened. "Orihime, Ishida!"

"Calm down son." Isshin said tiredly.

"Calm down! Orihime and Ishida are-!" The words got stuck in his throat when he saw the condition his father was in. His right arm and left leg were completely gone and he had a hole in his stomach. "DAD!"

"Shut up and listen, I don't have much time." Isshin coughed out.

"Don't say that!"

"I'm dying Ichigo," Isshin said as he pulled out a picture, "Please listen to what I have to say." Reluctantly Ichigo nodded. "Look at this picture." Taking it ichigo looked. It was a picture of his parents holding a him as a baby...wait that couldn't be right. In his fathers hands was another baby that had the same hair color as himself.

"Whose the other baby?" He asked some what fearfully.

"...That...is your twin sister."

THUD.

Ichigo hit the ground passed out.

-Back in the present-

The straw hats could only stare in shock at Ichigo and Chad, before looking at each other. All of them, besides Robin that is, couldn't imagine loosing one another and being able to move on. Ichigo took out his chain.

"These are all Chad and I have left of them."

Nami pointed at the rings. "Were those our parents?" Ichigo nodded, "and those other items were your friends."

"Dad managed to collect them before he fled with me and Chad." Ichigo allowed a tear to slip out before he wiped it away. "I didn't tell you all this to have you feel sorry for us. I did so I could tell you that I'm going to do everything I can to make sure it never happens again."

Luffy let out a laugh. "You won't need to worry about that. We're a pretty strong crew that has each others back."

Ichigo allowed himself to smile. ''I wouldn't expect anything less from your crew."

"Between you and Luffy, we're never going to stop getting into trouble." Ichigo glared at Chad.

"What's that supposed to mean?," Chad just got up and walked out onto the deck, "Hey don't walk away without explaining what you meant!"

The straw hats laughed as Ichigo chased after Chad. Nami noticed that he forgot grab his chain. Grabbing it she went outside, where she found Ichigo laying on his back looking at the stars. "Hey you forgot this." She handed him the chain."

"Oh thanks." Ichigo said taking it back. He looked at it for a moment before taking off the hair pins. "Here, I want you to hold onto these."

"What?!" Nami said in surprise.

"I want you to hold onto these." Ichigo repeated himself not seeing what the problem was.

"B-but those are important to you." Nami reasond.

"That's why I want to give them to you. I've almost lost these more times than I can keep track of. You seem much more organized then me, so I can trust you to keep them safe." Ichigo gestured for her to sit. When she did he took the pins and clipped them in her hair. "Who knows...maybe they'll protect you someday."

Nami touched them tentatively before smiling and pulling him into a hug. "Thank you." Ichigo hugged her back.

"Oy Luffy quit eating all the food!" The siblings heard Sanji yell then a crash.

"You better get back in there." Ichigo kissed her forehead before laying back down falling asleep right away. Nami smiled again and went back inside.

"BOTH OF YOU BE QUIET!"

"BUT NAMI/YES NAMI-SWAN!"

-END-

...Yep, told ya it would be dark. Gonna be going back to the OP story line from here. I'm gonna skip to the part right before they take the knock up stream. Like I told those that read my other story, I'm switching back and forth between them, so the next chapter will most likely be out next week maybe sooner. Until then Fav/Follow and review.


	9. Journey to Sky Island

Zrocker119:This chapter is shorter then usual, but I felt like it should end where it did.

"normal speech"

'thoughts'

~hollow~

-START-

"Okay, I've done my fare share of crazy things but this takes the cake!" Ichigo shouted over the roaring wind. After catching the south bird and Luffy helping out the Oldman, Ichigo couldn't quite remember his name...or the monkey looking guys either but that was besides the point. What is thought is that this plan of taking the knock up stream to get to the sky island, is batshit insane! One miscalculation and they'll be blown to kingdom come. Chad was doing his best to keep the ship steady and not have it get capsized as he willingly steered them into the track of a giant whirlpool.

...Did he forget to mention that they're crazy?

"HERE I COME SKY ISLAND!" Of coure Luffy was ecstatic about it. Usopp and Nami were trying their best to change Luffy's mind but the captain wasn't going to budge on this. Not that he ever did on anything once he made up his mind. Then, just as they were falling into the whirlpool, it disappeared and the sea became eerily calm.

"Wh-what happened?" Asked Sanji.

"Clearly the whirlpools gone." Ichigo said stating the obvious.

"Hey Zoro," Luffy pointed behind them, "isn't that..."

Heading towards them was what appeared to be some sort of boat, if it could be called that. It looked like someone just cut down some trees and tied the logs together. Four figures could be seen on it.

"Tshahahaha! I finally caught you Straw-hat Luffy and Ichigo Kurosaki!" A large man with black hair and beard called out. " We've come to take the head of the men worth a total of 350 million beli!"

"What's he talking about? I'm only worth 30 million." Luffy was clearly confused.

"Ichigo." Chad called out.

"Yea-!" He bearly caught the binoculars thrown at him. "WILL YOU STOP THAT!" He looked through them and saw what Chad was worried about. "So they decided to let the world know."

"What is it?" Nami aske hearing the grim tone in his voice.

"HOLY CRAP!" Usopp shouted getting everyone attention. "Luffy! Your bounty got raised to 100 million, Zoro you've got one worth 60 million and Ichigo..."

"What about Ichigo?"

"My bounty is at 250 million," ichigo answered first, "and Chads got one worth 75 million."

"Uh Guys."

"WHAT?!" Nami cried not believing what she heard. "Why didn't you have one before?"

"Guys."

"The government didn't want the world to know that one of their most promising marines went rouge. Back in Alabasta Smoker saw me and must have spread the word, forcing them to let the world learn of what I did." Ichigo reasoned.

"GUYS!" Chad shouted finally loosing his patients. Hearing him shout for the first time since meeting him shocked everyone. Thanks to the silence Ichigo noticed something.

"Are we getting higher?" The moment he asked that question, the sea exploded.

-LINEBREAK-

"He-he...alright," said ichigo as he laid on the deck, "Anyone that's not dead make some sart of noise." A collective number of groans reached his ears. That was good, if they could feel pain then they were still alive.

"I think I broke something." Zoro complained sitting up.

"GUYS LOOK!" Luffy said sounding excited. Lokking around they crew became silent seeing that they were surrounded by a sea of white.

"Its...its a sea of clouds." Nami had a hard time believing what she was seeing. She looked at the log pose to see that it was still pointing up. "But the log pose is still pointing up."

"Maybe we're only in the middle of the 'millennium cumulonimbus'..." Robin trailed off not sure herself.

"At least everyones alright." Ichigo said before putting a hand on Nami's shoulder. "Good job navigator." Nami blushed from his praise.

"How are we supposed to get higher?" Chopper asked addressing the situation before them.

"Not a clue." Ichigo reach over and plucked Usopp out of the air as he tried to dive off the boat. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"What are you talking about?"

Ichigo unceremoniously dropped him back on the deck of the ship. "We're currently a couple thousand kilometers in the air right now. What do you think is going to happen if you were to swim too far down?" Usopp's face slowly contorted into a look of horror at what Ichigo was telling him. "Huh that's what I though."

The water...clouds near the Going Merry exploded and some kind of octopus attacked the boat. Zoro and jumped into action, surprisingly it popped like a balloon after just one cut. "Hu that was easy."

"Hey look at this." Robin said showing them a flat looking fish that she had found. "They must have evolved differently from those that live in water. Making themselfve lighter because the buoyant force is much weaker here than in sea water."

"It has feather instead of scales." Nami noted.

Chad stood next to Chopper who was looking through some binoculars. "Hey Chad!" Over the short time that Chad and Ichigo had joined their crew, Chopper had come to see them as older brothers. He like being around Chad the most, something about his presence was just calming to him.

"See anything interesting?"

Chopper looked a bit more. "I can see another ship and a...person?" He said quizzically.

Chad held out his hand and Chopper gave him the binoculars. Taking a look, Chad saw what he was talking about. A pirate ship was sailing through the clouds. Heading towards it was a man wearing a bull mask, carrying a shield in one hand and a bazooka in the other. To Chads shock the man destroyed the boat and began heading towards them.

"We've got company!" Chad shouted alerting the crew. Ichigo, Luffy, Zoro, Sanji and Chad all got ready to fightm but to their utter shock the man managed to desimate all of them without sustaining a single injury. The masked man was ready to destroy the Merry, just like he did the other ship, when an oldman wearing an old fashioned suit of armor armed with a lance came riding in on a gaint bird.

"Not another one!" Name cried thinking he was there to kill them as well. Thankfully this one is a good guy and drove off the bull masked lunatic.

"Are you all alright?" He asked dismounting the bird.

"Yeah, thanks to you old timer." Ichigo thanked him getting up.

"Call me 'The Sky Knight'."

"What was that by the way?" Name asked pointing to them all,"That guy destroyed you."

"You are all from the blue seas yes?" The Sky Night asked.

"Do you mean from below?" Ichigo asked pointing down. "If so then yes."

"This place is 7000m above the blues seas, the air is much thinner here. This is the white sea and above here is the white-white sea at 10000m." The Sky Knight explained. "It's very dangerous for people of the blue seas."

"I'm actually getting use to it." Luffy said hitting his chest. The rest of them nodded, having goten use to the air as well.

"That shouldn't be possible!" The sky knight said not believing them.

"Trust me when I say we've done crazier things," Nami put a hand on her forehead, "We did just hiich a ride on the knock up stream.

"Wait! You didn't come up through the top of High Waist!" He looked at them in surprise.

"You're saying there's another way up here!" Nami began strangling Luffy. "See! I told you we should've waited and gathered some more information!"

Ichigo managed to pry her off of their idiotic captain. "Calm down Nami. We're all still here aren't we."

"You didn't lose any of your crew either!" He couldn't believe how lucky this crew was. "Maybe it was a good thing you took the knock up stream. Had you not, you surely would've lost some of your crew."

"See everything worked out in the end." Luffy laughed off her worries.

"Here," The knight handed Nami a whistle, "Should you ever need help blow into this and I'll come." He hopped onto the back of the bird that brought him.

"Wait you never told us your name!" said Nami.

"I am Gan Fall and his," He gestured to the bird, "is my partner Pierre. He ate the Uma-Uma fruit allowing him to change into a winged horse." Pierre's body started to change. Horse legs grew from his chest and the back legs changed to match them. His beak shorted and bulked up. When he was finished with his transformation, he had become...the bastardized child of a pegasus.

...Man those spots are ugly.

They watched as Gan Fall flew away wishing them good luck.

"He really didn't tell us anything useful." Robin said once he was out of sight.

"Yeah." They all agreed.

"He said we're only in the white sea," said Chad, "and that the white-white sea is even higher. How do we get there?"

"I'll call him back and ask!" Luffy tried to blow the whistle but Nami stopped him.

"No! That's for emergencies only!" She yelled pulling on his cheeks.

"Hey look at that!" Chopper shouted pointing at a waterfall shaped cloud off in the distance. "Why don't we head to that." That was the best idea that they had heard all day. So, with nothing better to do, that's what they all agreed on.

Nami checked the log pose. Seeing that is was still the same she sighed. Normally she'd be at the wheel helping who ever was steering, but Chad was almost as good as a navigator as herself so he didn't require her assistance. Noticing that Ichigo was alone by the railing.

"Hey." She said leaning on the railing next to him.

"Hey." An awkward silence took over.

"I've been wondering," Nami began, "when you first found us you said that your, sorry our father died because he was sick. How come you lied." He was quiet for a moment.

Ichigo let out a sigh. "I didn't want Vivi to know what really happened. Her knowing would've put her in even more danger than she already was."

"Isn't she already in danger by being in an 'intimate' relationship with you." Nami pointed out.

"H-h-how did you know that we slept together?!" He whispered blushing madly.

"You just told me." Nami grinned making him faceplant.

"Well we weren't at the time." He sighed. "She probably knows by now anyway."

"...She going to be pissed, you know that right?"

"Yep." Ichigo actually shivered at the thought. He remembered how they use to rough house when they were little. She was one of the higher members of BW for a reason. Yeah he had a reason to fear his girlfriends wrath.

"Have fun with that." Nami laughed. "...what was our father like?"

"Insane," He responded not even giving it a thought, "Every morning I woke up to him attacking me, and when I got back from a mission...and when I was going to the bathroom. He always said it was to keep my skills sharp, but I'm still convinced it was to piss me off." Nami sweat dropped at his bluntness, but she had to agree. Their father sounded a bit off...maybe that explained why she went with Luffy in the first place. "But...he was always there, looking after me, giving me advice when I needed it. He was a good man and a damn good marine. He raised me as best as he could. If he wasn't then aunt Rangiku and uncle Gin were."

Nami blinked. "We have a aunt and uncle?"

"Miss navigator we have a problem." Robin said getting Ichigo's and Nami's attention. Blocking the ships path was a huge cloud. Wait was that Luffy bouncing on it.

"NAMI COME TRY THIS! IT'S SO FUN!" He called to them. Chopper quickly hopped on to join him.

"If he can bounce on that cloud, then we can't just sail through it," Nami mused, "Hey Luffy! See if you can find a way through."

-LINEBREAK-

"Next time I'll go and give the directions." Ichigo grumbled once they finally made it through the maze of clouds. Luffy kept leading them into dead ends and having them going in circles. It took some time but they eventually made it. They were surprised to a gate way of some kind. Above it was a giant sign that read 'Heavens Gate'.

"Somebody's full of themselves."

"Are we already dead?" Luffy asked earning him a hit from Nami. "Lets see if we can take this up!" A door opened and a short, shrived old woman came out. Sprouting from her back was a pair of bird wings. She took her camera and started snapping pictures of them.

"If you want to go up then each person must pay the 1 billion aigusu enterance fee." She told them still taking pictures.

"Ummm...what if...we don't have the money?" Nami asked. They had some money but 1 billion what ever she called it sounded like a lot, and she didn't want to spend any.

"You can still go."

"REALLY?!" Usopp shouted not believing her.

"You don't need to go up if you don't want to. I just need to know what your going to do." She informed them.

"We still want to go to Sky Island, and we're not paying!" Luffy said wanting to get moving.

"Really? 9 people, okay then."

"...Um, how do we get up?" As luggy asked, 2 giant claw bursted from the clouds and grabbed the side of the Merry. "What's going on!?"

"That's the white sea's speedy shrimp." That was all they heard before the ship moved up the cloud like river.

"THIS IS AWESOME!" Luffy shouted at the top of his lugs as he sat on his favorite seat. The giant shrimp(yes I just said that) move very quickly through the cloud river as it snaked through the sky, climbing higher and higher. Eventually they reach the top where their destination lied. They had finally made it to the sky island.

-END-

Zrocker119:Before I end this I just wanted to say thank you to KuramaFTW for pointing out some of the flaws in my story. I really mean it, any constructive criticism is welcomed as long as your not a complete ass about it. Well, as always, until next chapter fav/follow and review.


	10. Welcome to Skypiea, finally there!

Zrocker119: Sorry for the long wait, been working on my other stories.

"normal speech"

'thoughts'

~hollow/zanpakuto~

-START-

When they broke throught the clouds, the whole Straw-hat crew could only stare in amazement at what lies before them. It was a town that sat on top of the clouds. There's even a beach with trees growing on it.

"YEAH! WE MADE IT TO SKY ISLAND!" Luffy shouted at the top of his lungs. Everyone laughed at the captains enthusiasm.

Luffy, Usopp and Chopper wasted no time in jumping ship to explore the beach.

"What about the anchor? There's no bottom of the sea." Chad grabbed the anchor from Zoro and threw it onto the shore. Zoro gave it an experimental tug to make sure that it wouldn't move. When it didn't Zoro nodded to Chad. "Good job."

Chad gave him a thumbs up.

"This is amazing." Ichigo commented looking at the scenery.

"It's almost like a dream." Sanji took off his shoes. Jumping off the railing he did some flips all while yelling. "YEEEHHHHOOOO!" SPLASH! He dove into the clouds.

"Looks like he's just as excited as the rest." Chad nodded in agreement to Zoro's analysis.

"Ouchouch, sorry ouch!" Nami ran around the deck, the south bird that they captured pecking at her head. "Geez." She said once it finally left.

Eyes closed, Ichigo shook his head in amusement. "I forgot we had h- WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?!" He yelled, pointing at her.

Nami looked herself over. All she's wearing is a blue-camo bikini top, brown cargo shorts and a pair of sandals. "What's wrong with my outfit?"

"What's wrong with it?! It's not decent!" She was showing off way too much skin in Ichigo's opinion.

"I wear things like this all the time." Really the only things out of place were the hairclips that he had given her.

Nami ignored her twins horrified look and jumped into the clouds. 'It's almost like water!' "This is amazing! Now that we've seen it for ourselves, no one can deny that the sky island exists."

"Skypiea." Chad said landing next to her. Seeing her confused look, Chad pionted at the giant sign that read 'Skypiea'.

"How did I not see that?" Nami just got a shrug from the quiet man.

Watching all the others smiling and laughing, Robin couldn't help but smile as well.

"What is it?" Zoro asked as he got ready to follow after everyone.

"It's just, I never thought that sailing could be so adventurous." Robin said earning a surprised look from Zoro.

Ichigo was listening as well. "Then what are you waiting for? Let's go!" Robin smiled at him and jumped over board. Zoro and Ichigo following shortly after.

* * *

Luffy inhaled deeply through his nose, getting a big whiff of the sent in the air. "This place has the sent of adventure!"

"With no marines here, we can finally relax." Nami stretched out on a chair that seems to be made of some kind of cloud.

Luffy climed a tree to get the fruit at the top. Grabbing it he tries biting it, but his teeth almost break. "What?" Tapping the sides he could feel that it was really hard. Looking down from his perch, Luffy saw Ichigo sprawled out directly beneath him, enjoying the sun. "Hey Ichigo, want a fruit!?"

That was Ichigo's only warning before the pumpkin like fruit slammed into crotch. Ichigo face slowly shifted from shock to one of intense pain, before letting out a silent scream.

Luffy winced when he noticed where he hit him. "Oops." He had aimed for his stomach.

Ichigo rolled over cupping his damaged manhood. When Ichigo spoke, his voice was several octaves higher than normal. "I'm gonna kill you Luffy." Ichigo said with a crazed look.

'Looks like we're gonna need a new captain.' Zoro thought as he watched Luffy running around as Ichigo chased him, swords drawn. 'God speed Luffy.'

His inner musings were cut shot when he looked down and saw a small, snow white fox looking at him. "Oh, a fox." It was at that moment that everyone became aware of music being played.

"That sounds like a harp." Ichigo said trying to locat the source. Luffy took this opportunity to sneak away, less Ichigo resume trying to deliver divine judgment apon him.

"Over there!" Following Sanji's finger, they saw a shadowy figure on a nearby hill. "Is that an angle?!" They could see what looked like wings sticking out of the figure's back.

The being turned towards then. The sun died down a bit and reviled that it was a young woman. She had blonde hair with two antennas sticking out of the top of her head and wore a pink dress, but her most noticeable feature, are the small angle wings on her back.

"Heso!" She said walking towards them. "Are you all from the blue seas?"

"Sure are. We flew up here!" Luffy said looking at her with his head tilted. "You live here?"

"Yes I do. This is Angle Beach of Skypiea." She noticed the fruit that Luffy held. "Would you like some help with that?" Getting a nod, she pulled out a knife and cut a hole in the bottom. Sticking a straw in it, she gave it back.

Taking a drink, Luffy savored the taste before yelling out. "THIS IS SOOOOO GOOD!"

She laughs at his reaction. "I'm Conis." The fox that Zoro saw earlier jumped into her arms. "And this is my pet cloud fox, Su. Is there something I can do to help you?"

"Suu suu." Su purred as Conis pet her head.

"Nice to meet you Conis, I'm Nami." Nami greeted while holding Sanji back. "There's so much we want to know. Everything up here is unbelievable."

Conis laughed. "I can only imagine how different thing are from your seas, so don't hold anything back."

"Hey, what's that?" Zoro asked as something approached them from the sea.

"Oh, that's my father." Conis said waving at the man. "Heso, father!"

"Heso!" The man greeted back.

"What's he riding?" Sanji asked. It looked like a cross between a row boat and a jet ski(not that they know what a jet ski is).

"That's a Waver." Conis explained.

"Look out, I'm going to stop now." The man said...right before he drove into the beach and crashed into a tree.

...

...

...

"Is anybody hurt?" He asked disregarding himself.

"CHECK YOURSELF FIRST!" Zoro shouted.

Nami looked at what he rode in on and realized something. "Luffy, didn't you recover something like that from under the sea?"

"Yah, sure did." Luffy went back to his fruit drink.

"Are these friends of yours, Conis?" The man asked. Now that he wasn't moving at high speeds they could take in his features.

He was bald, exept for the two dark brown antenna on top of his head. He has a strange round beard that covers his mouth and his eyes are closed. He's wearing a brown/yellow robes with a black leaf design on it.

Conis nodded. "Yes, I just met them father. They're from the blue sea."

"Really? The blue sea. Then they must be really curious about the white white sea. Pardon me." The man said.

"Eh?" Everyone said tilting their heads. Why's he apologizing to them?

"Pardon me, I forgot to introduce my self. My name's Pagaya." He introduced himself.

"Stop apologizing." Ichigo deadpanned.

"If anything, we should be the ones doing so." Nami added.

Pagaya didn't seem to care as he continued. "You picked a great time to arrive. I just finished fishing." He pulled out a lobster from the basket on his back. "These are called Sky lobsters. Please come to our home and I'll cook you some sky special cuisine."

He had Luffy's attention at food. "Really? Let's go then!"

"Can I ask a question first?" Nami asked looking over the waver. "How does this work? I can't see anything that could propel it through the water."

"Ah that's right. You don't know what a dial is." Conis realized, forgeting that they didn't have them in the blue seas.

The Straw-hats just looked at her and tilted their heads. "Dials?'

* * *

Luffy stood in the waver as it sat parked on the shore. 'Ok, so I step on this to get it to move.' Instead of gently applying pressure, Luffy floored the accelerator, launching him across the water.

"WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHOOOOO!" His thrill was short lived. He hit a small wave and caused the waver to flip.

Everyone else watched from shore as Luffy got launched into the air.

"He got some pretty good air." Ichigo commented as Luffy continued to climb higher and higher.

"Is he OK?!" Conis asked looking at Luffy with concern.

"Pardon me, this is my fault." Pagaya shook his head. "I never should've let him borrow it."

Ichigo watched as Luffy crashed into the clouds. "Shouldn't one of us get him? You know, before he drowns."

"But these are clouds, not water." Sanji took a drag from his cig.

"Maybe he'll actually float." Zoro added.

"He's sinking." Chad deadpanned as Luffy's out stretched hand sunk beneath the clouds. Zoro and Sanji dove in after him.

Several minutes later, Luffy and the waver were safely back on the beach.

"Uhuhuh(not sure how to do panting)...My foot past through the bottom of the cloud." Luffy panted, greedily taking in the sweet air.

"Why you jump in too!?" Usopp shouted at Chopper, who had jumped in after Luffy, seeming to forget that he couldn't swim.

"I shouldn't have let a beginner ride the waver, please excuse me." Pagaya apologized over and over. "Because the waver is so light, even the slightest wave will cause it to turn. So one understand the sea or predict the waves. Please pardon me!"

"I've been practicing for years and only have only just got it." Conis admitted.

"Wow." Usopp was amazed. "Looks like none of us can use it then."

"Hey guys!" Everyone looked and saw Nami riding the waver like a pro. "This is awesome!"

"SHE DID IT!" Usopp's jaw dropped.

"YOU'RE THE BEST, NAMI-SWAN!" Sanji cried with hearts for eyes.

"You need to have a certain level of skill and consentration to control it. Sorry Luffy, but this is out of your league." Nami said, shooting a metaphorical arrow through Luffy's dream of driving the waver.

Luffy shook it off. "Hey Nami, come back in so we can go eat!"

"You guy's go ahead." Nami called back. "Is it OK if I ride a little longer?"

"Yes. Just be careful." Pagaya nodded. Nami squeeled in child-like glee and sped up.

"You coming Ichigo?" Luffy asked seeing that IChigo hadn't moved from his spot.

"I'm gonna go after Nami and make sure she doesn't get into any trouble. She's got the same blood in her after all." Conis and Pagaya jumped when Ichigo disappeared from sight.

"What did he mean by 'the same blood'?" Zoro asked.

"He means the same blood as himself.," Chad began, "Ichigo tends to find trouble wherever he goes and his father was the same. He's making sure that if Nami does get into trouble, that he'll be there to get her out of it." Chad's conclusion made sense.

"So they're siblings?" Conis asked.

"It's a long story." Chad left it at that.

As Nami sped off into the distance with ease, Luffy couldn't help but feel envious. "I hope she flips." Sanji kick him upside the head.

* * *

Nami took a deep breath and exhaled. 'This is by far the most fun I've had in forever.' The wind was whipping her hair around, the sun was shining and nothing was trying to attack her. She defiantly needed this.

She almost flipped the waver over when Ichigo suddenly appeared next to her.

"Mind if I hop on?" He asked casually, keeping up by running beside her.

"BAKA!" Ichigo skidded across the clouds from Nami's punch. "Don't scare me like that." Nami stopped by where Ichigo floated.

Sporting a new bump on his head, Ichigo held onto her shoulders for support. Once he was secured, Nami pushed the accelerator.

"Is this what you feel like when you move fast?"

"Not really." Ichigo shrugged. "I move much faster than this, ruptured a few organs when I was first starting out."

"What was that last part?" Nami couldn't really hear it over the wind.

"Nothing."

They rode in silence for several miles. Nothing needed to be said, they were just enjoying the senery and each others company.

"Hey Ichigo," Nami broke the silence, "Before you said that we have an Aunt and Uncle."

"Yeah, Aunt Rangiku and Uncle Gin. Would you like to know about them?" Nami nodded. "Well Aunt Rangiku was dads lieutenant and is very beautiful. Even I can't deny that. She loves drinking with her crewmates and partying. If she wasn't doing any of those, then she was pushing all of her paper work onto our father or Uncle Gin."

"How did she ever become a lieutenant?" Nami could only wonder.

"Her devil fruit helped." Nami almost lost control hearing that. "She ate the Ash-Ash fruit, making her an ash woman. To give you and idea, think of what Crocodile could do except with ash."

"She sounds really strong."

"She is. The only reason she's not a captain is because she only wanted to work under dad and Uncle Gin."

"What about Gin?"

"Uncle Gin...is...well he's..." Ichigo thought of a way to describe him. "He's Aunt Rangiku's captain as well as being her husband and is defiantly more reserved than her, but not by much. He likes to prank his crew everyonce and awhile. He always smiling, but not a warm smile, but more of a mocking one. With that and the fact that he rarely opens his eyes earned him the nickname, Snake."

Ichigo noticed Nami's discourage look. "Don't let that bother you though. He genuinely cares for his underlings, both of them do."

"I would like to meet them." Ichigo found himself smiling with Nami.

"I'm sure you will some day."

* * *

"ACHOO!" Both Gin and Rangiku sneezed at that moment, sending all of their paper work to the floor.

"Bless you."

"Thank you, Izuru." Said blonde just nods and helps the two pick up the papers.

* * *

-with the rest of the crew-

Luffy and the crew, minus Ichigo and Nami, made it to Pagaya's house which sat confortably at the top the stairs. Looking back they could see the incredible view.

"I can see Ichigo and Nami from here!" Luffy waved to them, but they couldn't see him doing so.

Chad was looking around the room with mild interest when Conis aproached him. In her hand was a shell. "Here, say somehing into it."

Not seeing anything special about it Chad shrugs. "Hello."

"Now press the top of the shell."

Chad raised a brow. Wouldn't that break it? He did so anyways.

"Hello."

Everyone looked at the shell in surprise when Chad's voice came from it.

"That's a tone dial. It can record any sound and play it later." Conis explained to them. Luffy took the dial from Chad to get a better look at it.

Robin thought for a moment. "If that's a dial, then how can it power a waver?"

"There are many different types of dials." Said Pagaya grabbing a different one. "Although smaller, this is the same kind of dial that powers the waver, a wind dial. However long you put it facing the wind, is how long it will generate wind."

"Fascinating." Robin observed the dial before passing it to Luffy, who spun his arm rapidly and pushed the top of the dial. His face was blown back from the wind generate by it.

"Sugoi! Do you think you can fix the waver we found?" Pagaya thought about it.

"As long as the Dial's shell isn't broke, then I should be able to fix it." He nodded making Luffy jump with joy.

Soon Sanji and Pagaya finished preparing lunch. Laying it out everyone started diging in.

Sanji stood by the window to smoke. As he lit his cigarette Sanji noticed that Nami and Ichigo were nowhere to be seen. "Hey guys, I can't see Nami or Ichigo."

"They probably just went to far out." Luffy said in between bites of food. "With Ichigo there, they'll be fine. Get back to eating!"

Conis suddenly became worried. "Father, do you think...di you think they may have gone there?"

Pagaya was worried as well. "With the waver it's possible."

Chad looked at the two. "What do you mean?"

"There's a place nearby that no one should enter." Just thinking about the place made her start sweating. "The holy land where God lives...The Upper Yard."

* * *

-Nami and Ichigo-

Even though he could move much faster than the waver, Ichigo was enjoying himself. Just being able to spend some quality time with his sister put a rare smile on his face.

"What is that?" Nami asked coming to a stop. Following her gaze, Ichigo saw what she was talking about.

"Holy..." Infront of them lied an Island. Not one made of clouds like Skypiea, but an island made of land. 'Why do I have the feeling that we shouldn't be here?'

-END-


End file.
